One Chance
by Mipiko
Summary: Miku's used to having all of the attention showered over her and she'll do anything to stay on top. Even if it means she has to crush those beneath her, including meek, little Miki. But what happens when she goes too far? 1st SF-A2 mikixKAITO FanFic.
1. Cherries, Leeks, and Crushes Oh my!

AN: Hey guys! This is my first FanFic and the first one to come out as a KaitoxSF-A2 miki pairing. I don't plan on making this long, maybe about four chapters if time permits. Sorry that it sucks, but please don't be shy to R&R, I like to hear what others have to say so that I can try and get better at this. I kinda wanted to flesh this one out since I couldn't find one, that and this is probably either the least liked or never been thought of pairing. Well, I hope it's not too bad and enjoy! ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vocaloids, just this story and the models.

Chapter One: Cherries, Leeks, and Crushes Oh my!

* * *

_"The best and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched._

_They must be felt with the heart."_

* * *

"Cherries~…cherries~…Oh where oh where have my sweet cherries gone, oh where oh where could they be~?" she cheerfully sang.

Miki had woken up bright and early in her usual cheery mood. She promptly made her way into the kitchen, eager to start the day. For some reason, she felt as if though today was going to be a great day and what better way to start it off than to eat what you love most for breakfast?

As she leaned in closer inside of the fridge, her ahoge twitched to the right and lead her to her favorite treat. With a happy squeal, she eagerly took out the jar and began to unscrew the lid. Before she could even place one close to her lips, she heard a scoff and turned around to see the unpleasant face of a certain young teal-haired diva.

"Are you done yet?" the young tealette curtly demanded.

Miki attempted a smile and tilted her head cutely at her. "Good morning Miku~! Fancy seeing you up bright and early today, how're y-?"

Miku stopped her short and shoved her aside as she reached inside of the fridge to pull out an array of vegetables. "Get out of my way; I'm busy making breakfast for everyone today."

She looked at Miku for a second before smiling at her again. "Oh ok! Have fun and please be careful not to burn yourself again like last time." she helpfully advised.

That one harmless statement made Miku snap and she strucked Miki's forehead with a leek, the force knocked her down to the floor. With a yelp, she protectively placed her hands to her head and began to rub the swollen lump that had already formed on her pale skin. She whimpered a little and tried to hold back her tears but a few of them managed to leak out. Miku smirked and was ready to strike again and taunt her until she suddenly closed her mouth when they heard a voice.

"Hm? What's going on in here? Who's crying?"

Miki didn't need to turn around to know who it is. Her face began to heat up and she scrambled up to try and wipe the tears off of her face. She felt a hand placed on the top her head and felt him lean in. "Are you alright Miki-chan?"

Her face burned and she yelped at the sudden contact. "U-uh, g-good morning K-Kaito-sama…" She nervously mumbled. She felt like she was about to die. She didn't really understand why she felt like that whenever she was with him. It could be that fact that the last time Miku harassed her, he defended her and got Miku to leave her alone for a good while. She felt like she owed a lot to him. She could practically hear the smile that was on his face and bid her a good morning as well.

"Ah, I must have been hearing things; I could have sworn I heard someone crying in here…"

Miku ran up to him and glomped his arm. "No, you were mistaken Kaito~ It's just us two, having a friendly conversation, isn't that right_ Miki_?" she said her name through gritted teeth. Miki kept a hand over her forehead and nodded. "Uh, y-yeah, just a friendly conversation is all…"

She tilted her head down a little so that she couldn't see Miku and Kaito being together. She had a feeling that Miku knew full well how Miki felt about him; yet she didn't say anything to him. _I wonder why? If she's always been acting like that around him, which she never did before he helped me, could she had realized how she secretly felt about him?_ The thought of it left the impression that her heart had sunk into the dark depths of her stomach.

However, she heard Miku protest and felt her bangs being pushed aside. She realized far too late that she had taken her hand off of her forehead and saw his dark azure eyes examining the bruise. The burning feeling was back on her cheeks and she felt her heart skip a beat. "Uh, w-what are you doing, Kaito-sama?" she questioned. He looked at her sternly, "How'd you get that nasty bruise on your face? You didn't have that on your forehead yester-!" He turned to face Miku and scowled at her. "You did this to her, didn't you?"

Miku shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about. She hit her head looking for those cherries in the fridge. You know how clumsy she is." She said with a dignified smirk on her face.

Miki pouted and took his hand off of her head. "I'll be in my room if any of you need me..." She glumly stated.

Before he could say anything else, she touched the blue star on her chest and warped back into her room. With a small sigh, she began to pull them out of the jar and bit them off of the stems. She hated the fact that Miku could effortlessly pull those kinds of excuses off.

"Miku never does anything wrong, she's too perfect!" she practically spat out.

As much as she tried, she felt like she couldn't keep her happy façade on much longer. Every time she tried to do something nice or tell her compliment, Miku manages to either shrug it off or twist it around to make a nasty comment directed at her. In public, Miku's known for her mild temperament, sweet voice, and overall charms. But whenever you ask about SF-A2 miki, apparently nobody has ever heard of her before. She hated that. She hated that Miku took the entire spotlight. She hated that a few people seem to know that there are other Vocaloids.

"But, it_ is_ because of her that the Vocaloids became popular…but it wouldn't hurt for her to _share_ it every once in a while…" she told no one in general. Again she sighed and sat down on her bed when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in…" she didn't care who it was, she wasn't in the mood to deal with the small things. That is, until she saw who came through.

"Miki? Are you ok?"

She jolted up in her bed. Standing in her room, at this specific moment, was Kaito.

* * *

Alright, and that's the end of chapter one! I hope it wasn't that bad, I'll post in the second chapter sometime this week. Thanks for reading!


	2. Bleeding Heart

Chapter Two: Bleeding Heart

_The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone else._

* * *

Miki stared at Kaito in astonishment. Right here, right now, he was in _her_ room. A member of the opposite gender was in _her _room. The object of her affection was in _her_ room. _Only four people have come in here before, the youngest Vocaloids and Lily-chan. But Kaito! Of all people, he still cared enough to come and see me!_ She mentally squealed. The familiar heat was beginning to rise up in her face again as her heart began. She was so happy that she almost didn't realize that he was talking to her.

"…so don't let her get to you too much, 'kay? But you should avoid her; she's been pretty stressed out with her trying to keep up with the Kagamines and rehearsing for her English voice bank. So take it easy on her."

Miki felt the corners of her mouth beginning to form a small pout. _Oh, so he only came to tell me that…_ She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed; she had thought he came on her behalf. She sighed and got up; the thrill of him being in her room had disappeared.

She forced a smile to him and as politely as she could muster, courteously responded, "Ok, Kaito, I will keep that in mind. Wouldn't want to upset Miku-san anymore than she already is…"

When she looked up to meet his eyes, he had a content look on his face and breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Miki-chan! I knew you'd understand." With one last smile, he backed out of her room and closed the door. Miki couldn't believe what had just taken place and was rooted at the spot. Even after she could no longer hear his footsteps, she stayed where she was, bewildered and tried her best to sort out what other emotions she could be feeling. She would have stayed in that spot for the rest of the day if it wasn't for Lily.

Miki was too busy staring at her door that she didn't notice that her body had been thrown to the ground if Lily hadn't apologized for smacking her with it. When Lily saw the dazed and pained expression on Miki's face, she started to panic and instantly believed it was her fault again.

"Ahhh! Red, are you ok? I'm so so so sorry for hitting you again! I just have the most awesomeness news to tell you!" Lily excitedly cried out. Miki blinked while she nursed her already sore head and smiled at the reckless blonde. "I am fine Lily-chan, what happened? What are you so excited about?"

To Miki's surprise, Lily hoisted her up and swung her around. "Kiyo likes me! Kiyoteru-sensei likes me! I did what you said that I should tell him and he admitted that he liked me, too!" she squealed and pulled Miki into a tight embrace. Miki couldn't help but smile at her friend's good fortune and managed to gasp out, "I am *gasp* so happy for you!" She meant it, she really did, but the tone of her voice made Lily stop spinning her around. She looked at Miki long and hard until she placed her down on her bed.

"Ok Red, what's up? You'd usually be your annoyingly happy mood by now, cheering with me 'cuz now we both know the truth! Come on, you can tell me, aren't I your best friend?" Lily urged, taking out a chair from Miki's desk and flipping it backwards. Once she rested her arms on her backrest, she looked over at Miki, expecting her to answer. "Well? I'm waiting. Can't help if I don't know what's wrong."

Miki's smile began to diminish and looked down at her feet. Her eyes blurred and heard Lily let out a small gasp. Seconds later, her arms were around Miki and began to run her hands through her cherry-red hair. She sighed and looked at Miki.

"Ok, never mind, you can tell me when you're feeling better…but if it's a guy and he tried to do any funny business with you, you know who to call. Nobody and I mean _nobody_ messes with my friends, especially when it comes to you!" As she rose up to leave, she gave her one last glance before her hand reached the door knob.

When Miki still didn't say anything, she sighed again and opened the door very slowly. "Ok, I'll be leaving in about…five seconds…uh-huh; I'll be going soon…three seconds…two seconds and counting…one—OH COME ON MIKI! Just tell me what's wrong! You know I don't like to leave you looking like that!" she said while she impatiently tapped her foot.

Miki wiped her tears away and looked up at Lily. Her usual bright ruby eyes had taken on a dull maroon color that Lily knew she couldn't ignore. She let out an exasperated sigh and started to pull on her honey-blonde hair. "ARGH! MIKI, SAY SOMETHING! THIS ISN'T LIKE YOU! Ok, if you don't tell me right now, I'm gonna—!"

Just then, Gumi poked her head through her door and had an apprehensive look on her face. She charged inside, knocked Lily out of the way, and grabbed Miki by the shoulders. "MIKI, OH MY GOSH! IT'S HORRIBLE MIKI, JUST HORRIBLE! YOU ARE NOT GONNA BELIEVE WHAT I'M ABOUT TO TELL YOU!" she bellowed.

Miki blinked back at her in confusion. She wanted to tell her friends to leave so then she could collect her thoughts, but the look in Gumi's eyes prevented her from doing so. Before Gumi could tell her the news, Lily grabbed her shoulder and forced her to let Miki go.

"What the hell is your problem, Gumi? Can't you see I was talking to Miki before you _rudely_ interrupted us?" she shrieked.

"So what? I've got something more important to tell her! So shut up and let me—"

"What the f***? Who're to tell me to 'shut up'? Say that again and I'll—"

"ENOUGH!" They stopped bickering and turned to see a red-faced Miki. "Stop fighting in here, I've already had enough for one morning!" She turned to face Lily and sighed. "Lily-chan, I'm just a little tired is all…and Gumi-san? What could possibly be so important to you that you desperately need to tell me?"

Gumi grew a little hesitant and looked down at her boots. "W-well, I was kinda planning on telling you when you were alone…" she said, taking a few furtive glances at Lily.

When Lily noticed Gumi looking at her, her cheeks turned pink and she huffed. "Oh come on! I'm Miki's best friend for crying out loud! She'd tell me even after you finish telling her, right Miki?" she looked over at her red-headed friend for her approval.

Miki nodded. "Of course, Lily-chan. It is alright to say it with her around, Gumi-san." They both looked at her expectantly as she uncomfortably adjusted her red goggles. She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"W-well, ok then, but you won't like it Miki…" She stopped fiddling around with her goggles and looked at them both. "It's about Kaito and Miku!" she finally cried out.

Lily looked confused while Miki's eyes widened in fear. "Huh? What's Kaito and Miku got anything to do with this?"she asked and looked at Miki. Lily looked at her closely and noticed the pupils of her eyes had constricted and that she was shaking a little. "H-huh? Miki, what's wrong? Why're you shaking like that?"

Miki ignored her and looked directly at Gumi. "T-tell me what happened. What did you see? Wh-what about them?"

Gumi began to feel very ashamed for bringing them up but ended up blurting out, "I saw them kissing in the kitchen! I'm so sorry Miki! I'm really really sorry!"

Miki froze. She felt that her breaking heart was as loud as a bomb exploding. It was as quiet as a feather falling in her room. And the most painful thing of it all, no one else heard it, except herself.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, busy finding scholorships and sending out my transcripts for college. ^^"

I also want to apologize on just how horrible this chapter is, I was in a bit of a rush to send out chapter two, but I hope it wasn't too bad! I also edited chapter 1 but it was a few minor changes. Anyway, if you have the time, please review! ^^


	3. Inspiration

A/N:

GAH! I'm really sorry for not posting anything in like almost...a month it seems? Anyway, here's chapter three! It's rushed and a little lengthy, I just hope it's not too confusing. *sigh* Life hates me at the moment...OTL

I'm also suffering from writer's block, so if any of you have any suggestions, feel free to PM me or put your suggestion in the review and I'll look into it!

* * *

Chapter Three: Inspiration

* * *

_"It's hard to tell your mind to stop loving someone, when your heart still does."_

* * *

For the next several weeks, Miki was in a daze. She no longer woke up early in the morning. She no longer smiled and greeted everyone in the same cheery tone. Iroha, one of the new Vocaloids, was the first to comment on Miki's condition; describing it as if though she was a hollow shell of her former self. She ceased speaking to anyone, which greatly concerned her closest friends.

Lily tried to take her out to raves or shopping, hoping to snap her out of it. Miki would only shake her head and leave behind a sorely pissed off blonde. Gumi tried to invite her into her home so that she could help Miki rebuild her ship. Miki was also into tinkering but turned Gumi down. Even Piko admitted that he was worried, though he didn't do much, if anything, to help out. Iroha showed Miki all of her Hello Kitty collectables, hoping that she could hear her squeal in delight at all of the cuteness. It still didn't work. It didn't take long for Miku to notice the change in her behavior and smirked every time they crossed paths.

"Still not talking I see, eh Miki~?" She snickered. Miki bit her lower lip and narrowed her eyes at the tealette. It took every fiber in her body to control herself to NOT want to smack Miku. The only response she ever gave to Miku was a weary sigh and would walk away from her. She cringed every time she heard her annoying giggling resonate in her ears.

Things were going better for Miku. Her recordings for her new English version were going great and she managed to put the Kagamines back in their place, thanks to her oh so loyal fans. _But best of all_, she thought, _I snagged him before she could even make a move. Ha!_ She couldn't have been happier.

It was, however, a little different with Kaito. Miki's sudden mood changed seemed to have unnerved him and was curious as to why she changed so much. That is, if only she wouldn't move around so much.

Whenever he managed to find and try to speak to her, she would avoid looking at him and would quickly make up an excuse to leave. Or, more often than not, she'd just warp away at the spot. He was beginning to grow very irritated with her, which didn't happen often, and began to become more persistent. The more he came to her, the more she grew rigid and to the point that every time she spoke, there was a sharp edge to it.

_But I don't care anymore_, she concluded, _I just knew I shouldn't have done that. I should have ignored those strange feelings whenever he was around. It was doomed from the start…besides, I knew he couldn't feel the same about me…_ she thought after she had made another successful escape. Later that day, Iroha had came into her room and made several unsuccessful attempts to coax her out of there.

"Come on Miki-chan, please tell what's wrong…" she said with pleading eyes. Miki would only smile, place a small kiss on her forehead, and warp away.

Kaito almost gave up until Luka decided to volunteer. "I can try to reason with her," she suggested.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his blue hair. "I hope you can, it's not like her to act this way. Do you have any idea why?" he asked. Luka looked away for a moment before responding.

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure. It is strange though, it must have been something severe to make her personality suffer an extreme change like that…" she shrugged and turned her back to him. "Are you really that concerned about her?" she coolly asked. The question caught him off guard. "Hm? Of course I'm concerned, who wouldn't be? After all, she's my friend." he said. Luka just looked at him and shrugged.

"Well, alright then. Do you have a clue where she'd be at the moment?" she said, slightly turning to leave.

He nodded. "It's a warm day today and a little cloudy. I'd say that she'd be in the garden, if not in the studio." He said, thinking back on all of those times he was able to find her. "Or she could still be in her room, I think you'd have a better chance finding her in there…"

"Well, wherever she could be at, I'll find her soon enough. And don't worry; I'm pretty sure I'll bring her back to her old self in no time." She said with a faint smile. He couldn't help but do the same.

xXx

It took her a good while looking for her. She was sure she'd find Miki in her room, but learned that it was empty. She tried the music studio since that place became Miki's new favorite hiding place. Still no Miki. The garden was the last place she looked and sure enough, Miki was there, huddled up in a ball underneath the sakura tree. Luka quietly walked to her side and sat down next to her crumbled state. She looked around and up at the clouds.

"It sure is a lovely day today, isn't it Miki?" she asked while running her fingers through Miki's cherry-red hair. Miki only nodded. Luka stopped stroking Miki's hair, leaned back into the tree, and sighed. "Miki, what's happened to you? It's not like you to sulk so much and to talk so little. Everyone's worried about you—"

"Miku isn't." she harshly whispered, but it sounded a little hoarse. Luka couldn't help but frown. She wouldn't normally speak to Miki; she thought she was too childish and energetic to her liking. But Miki always seemed to be genuinely happy and caring to the other Vocaloids. She told every one of them that she loved them very much on the first day she came and even hugged a few, Luka being one of them. But when she mentioned Miku, Luka had a good idea what the zealous girl could have done…That's when everything seemed to click. Miki didn't act like that until _after_ the rumors that Miku and Kaito were going out…Could there have been…

"Miki, do you love Kaito?" she bluntly asked. The fierce blush on Miki's cheeks was enough proof, but she frantically shook her head. Luka smiled and patted her head. "No need to hide it, it's all over your face."

Miki pouted and turned her back to the older Vocaloid. "S-so? He's with Miku, they love each other. I always knew he couldn't like me…" she said while taking in a shaky breath. "He could never like somebody like me…" She felt the tears coming until she felt Luka's arms wrap around her.

"Don't put yourself down like that, if you're upset about the rumors that Kaito and Miku are together, then you should go and ask him yourself." Miki's eyes widened.

"A-ask him? I could never do that! Besides, Gumi-chan told me that she saw Miku and Kaito kissing in the kitchen—"

"Or maybe her goggles were on too tight! She's been wrong before!"

"But she's always been so reliable to me! And she wouldn't dare lie—"

"Well there's a first for everything."

Miki grew quiet after that and stared up at the sky before letting her body drop onto the grass. For a long time, neither of them said a word to one another. The silence was broken when Luka heard Miki giggle. "Hey," she said with a hint of a smile in her voice,"that cloud looks a little bit like a tuna fish."

Luka's head automatically swerved up. "Where?" she demanded in the way a small child did when they wanted to know where the coin goes when somebody did the magic trick. Miki held her hand and pointed it to the opposite side of her face.

"Over there, the one that's close to the cloud shaped like a turtle!" Luka squinted and laughed when she caught site of it. "Yeah! You're right about that. Oh! Look over there! That one looks like a cherry!"

Now it was Miki's turn to cling onto her arm and frantically called out "Where, where is it Luka-sama?" Luka turned to face her and saw that her eyes had taken on an entirely new glow to them, they seemed much more clearer and more focused. She giggled and pointed to the cherry-shaped cloud.

"Over there. It's not that far from the one that looks like a sleeping kitty."

"Kitty? There's a kitty shaped cloud? Ha! Piko and Iroha would've loved to have seen that!"

The two of them continued to search and laugh together at the shapes of the clouds in the sky. Miki turned to face Luka and grinned. "Thanks for coming to see me Luka-sama. You're a lot of fun to hang out with and I feel a lot better already!"

Luka blushed at her comment and began to fiddle around with her hair. "R-really? You don't think I'm too…stoic…do you?"

Miki shrugged. "I kinda did, at first. Remember when I first came here and I hugged all of the Vocaloids? When I got to you, you went really rigid and tensed. I thought that maybe you didn't like them or maybe that you were one of those really mature and serious type of people. And you really are mature. I can see why Miku always comes to you to talk about her problems."

_Venting's more like it_, she bitterly thought but kept a smile at Miki. "Wow, you really think so? Haha, and you're as kind and friendly as Gumi and Lily say you are."

Now it was Miki's turn to blush. "Oh, I don't know about that…well, as of late…" she said with a slight frown.

Luka looked at her closely before speaking again. "Why do you let Miku come at you like that? What did you do to make her want to hate you so much?"

Miki's eyes narrowed at her. "Let me guess, I'm actually the hot topic of her choice to talk to you about, right?"

Luka's eyes wandered up at the sky again. Her response confirmed what she had thought and was barely audible. Miki sighed as she caught the single syllable.

"I knew it…and I honestly don't know what it is about me that she found so threatening. I mean, she seemed nice at first."

Luka shrugged. "That's true. Wasn't she the one who showed you around?" Miki nodded. "I thought so. I think I may know the answer to that since she bad-mouths just about everybody."

Miki turned to her side and kept a steady gaze at Luka. "You do? She does? So I'm not the only one then?"

Luka looked at her with an amused expression on her face. "Of course! She dislikes pretty much all of the girls that came before and after her. She _hated_ me because she thought I had a much more defined figure than Meiko. That, and she believes that my sensual voice grabs others attention away from her. I think she just learns to hate those who are different than she is. She probably dislikes you because your name sounds similar to hers... And she did kinda managed to eavesdrop on the guys one day and heard one of them describe you as 'cute'."

That grabbed Miki's attention as she shot up into a sitting position and clasped her small hands on around Luka's. "Really? One of them called me cute? Who did, please tell me, I want to know so badly!" she squealed and her voice easily went over an octave.

Luka took her hands out of hers. "I don't know! Miku refused to tell me—"

"It's got to be Kaito!" she squealed. "What other reason could there be that she would want to make my life miserable and try to take him? She didn't even like him before she learned that I had a crush on him~!" she started dancing around Luka in a circle. "This is great! I'm so happy that I—"

Luka grabbed her hand and pulled Miki back onto the ground. She placed a perfectly manicured finger to her lips, "Ssh! Don't talk so loud, Miku'll hear you for sure!" Miki gasped as her hands flew up to her mouth.

"Sorry…but you agree with me, don't you?"

Luka shrugged. "Maybe, but don't just assume that just yet. Listen, Kaito's been looking for you so that he could talk to you. Stop running away and just _go_ to him. He won't bite and I'm very sure he had no idea about your crush on him. He's not the type to just willingly hurt people, you know."

Miki smiled and glomped Luka. "Thank you so much for helping me Luka-sama, you're the best!" Before Luka could respond, she got up and pointed at the entrance to the house.

"Just you wait, Kaito-sama! I'll gather up the courage and ask you if it's true about you and Miku! And then I'll confess my love to you! Speaking of which…Luka-sama, do you love anybody?" she said with a curious look on her face.

Luka's cheeks flashed a tinge of pink onto them and had a flustered look on her porcelain visage. "Uh, um…I-I'll tell you about that on another day…"

* * *

A/N:

And that's the end of chapter three! The next one will be the final chapter, and thanks again for taking the time to read and/or review this. It really does make my day reading all the nice comments you all send to me. ^^

*gives you all cookies*


	4. Betrayal

A/N:

YES! Here's the final chapter to One Chance! Wow, it took more than a month to complete this and I'm so sorry to those who had to wait for me to post something up... OTL

Anyway, hope you all like it! ^^

And again, I apologize for the fact that I absolutely _suck_ at romance (I'm not much of a romantic myself), since I tried to add in some more KAITOxMiki romance, so please bear with me. =w="

Chapter Four: Betrayal

* * *

_"What we can do for another is the test of powers; what we can suffer is the test of love."_

* * *

"A-are you sure she wouldn't mind?" the young girl asked, her feet shuffling from underneath her.

"Of course I'm sure! After all, she's sooo far behind, she'd never catch up. But _you_, on the other hand, still have a good shot at this. Stay by my side, and you'll be popular before you know it!"

She smiled. "R-really? You mean that? B-but what about Miki? She's been my friend since the day I was released, she wouldn't-"

"Trust me, she won't mind at all. After all, doesn't she value you're happiness?" the young diva replied with a sly smirk.

The girl slowly nodded. "Yeah, I-I guess so. But are you really sure she won't-"

"I've already told you she won't!" she snapped. "Listen, just do as I say and you can help her out too, if you want."

The naïve girl couldn't help but smile. "Thanks Miku! I now really don't understand why Miki dislikes you so much. You're one of the nicest people I know! She should really try to hang out with you sometime. And thanks again for your offer, I won't let you down!"

The tealette couldn't help but keep a smug look on her face. "I know you won't Gumi", she lighlty patted her shoulder, "I know you won't."

* * *

Miki skipped inside of the house, grinning from ear to ear, as she made her way into the kitchen. Inside the living room, Piko was busy trying to untangle his USB cord that had knotted up but looked up when he heard light footsteps coming his way. To his surprise, he saw the face of a jubilant red-head, a smile so wide and perfect that he couldn't help but stare.

Miki stopped for a second to wave at him. "Evening Piko-tan! It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" she said as it took him another five seconds to register that she was actually talking to him.

He hastily shook his head before turning his attention to her. "Kun! It's Piko-_kun_! _Tan_ is for _girls_!" he said as he felt his cheeks burn from embarrassment. _Wow_, he thought, _great comeback, she'll definitely respond to that..._

Since he was too busy mentally chastising himself, he failed to take note that she was playfully sticking her tongue out at him before saying, "Whatever you say, Piko-_tan_~" and happily skipped away. He mentally facepalmed himself before burying his face into a pillow to scream out his frustrations. When he was finished, he chucked the pillow back onto the sofa before sliding down in it and sighed.

"Girls are so confusing. For two weeks they act like the most emo-est person on earth. And then, in just a few seconds, they act as if though they've won Miss Universe..." he grumbled before turning his attention back to unknotting his USB cord, silently cursing Lily and Iroha for pranking him...again.

xXx

_Swish! _After that last swing, Gakupo placed his katana down, exhausted from his daily training in his private dojo. As he sat down on the floor, he inhaled deeply before hearing a sweet voice, humming a beautiful tune. Sure enough, he turned to see a cascade of flowing cherry-red hair, followed by the fair complexion of a young girl. Like the boy before him, Piko, he couldn't help himself as he stared outside the door of his dojo. He started to rack his mind, wondering who was the person that the lovely voice belonged to. It sounded so familiar... It wasn't until she made the slightest turn of her head that he was able to see and knew right away who it was: Miki. He gaped at her smiling face, it seemed so long ago since the last time he saw her do that. He was at a loss of words until she looked directly at him.

Once she realized he was staring, she stopped humming long enough to poke her head inside of his dojo and gave him a small wave. "Good evening Gakupo-sensei!", she went on when she noticed he was opening his mouth to speak, "Sorry, can't talk right now! I'm busy looking for somebody, but I hope you had a productive training session~!" she bowed and skipped away, while he kept eyeing her fading figure.

He let out a small chuckle once he knew she was gone before getting back up. "That young maiden is by_ far_ more mysterious than the fair Luka," he said with a gleam in his eye. "But alas, one has already proclaimed to make it his mission to make her his." he finshed with a small sigh as he collected his things and walked out without another word.

xXx

"OW!" Len started to whimper as he saw strands of his golden blonde hair from a hair tie fall to the floor. He couldn't help but sigh as he tried to wipe off the makeup from his face and scowled when he saw the red smear on his hand. _If only Lily and Rin weren't so damn strong..._ He thought as he pulled out another one, a bit too harshly, and threw it at the wall in his room. He couldn't believe that they targeted him to be their victim again for another one of their stupid pranks, it was getting really old. He started to pull the nun outfit over his shoulders as the memory of their ambush was still fresh on his mind.

He shuddered "Just one of these days, I swear, just one of these days I'll-!"

"Heya Lenny-kun! What're you swearing to do?"

"KYA~AH!" he screamed as he quickly pulled the dress down and soon realized that he was face to face with, who he believes, to be the prettiest girl in the Vocaloid home. He felt his face heat up as he struggled to hide it behind his hair. "M-Miki-chan! Wh-what're you doing here?"

He heard her giggle as she started to lightly pat his head. _Wait a minute...Did she just-_ "Oh I just came in for a quick visit, that's all. I need to ask you something, very, very, _very_ important." she said, stressing out every syllable in _very_.

"S-sure! Anything, ask me anything at all!" _I wonder what she wants to know!Or maybe she wants to ask me if I'd like to go out on a..._ he felt the blush intensify as that possibility popped into his head. He was hoping that would be the case until they were mercilessly crushed by the next thing she had to ask.

"Where's Kaito-sama?"

He felt crestfallen as he slumped down onto his bed. "Oh..." That was the only thing he could say. _I thought she was gonna ask if we could go somewhere... _She didn't notice his expression and went on.

"I've got something important to say to him and it'll help me a whole lot if you could tell me if you know where he's at." she said as she pulled his hands in hers. At that moment, he felt like he was gonna die. Here she was, in his room, asking for help instead of ambushing, abusing, and insulting him. How could he say no to her?

"H-he's in...the kitchen...making ice cream..." his voice was barely audible but she caught what he said and let his hands go. He couldn't help but pout until she pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Oh~! Thank you Len-kun! That means a whole lot to me!" She licked her thumb and rubbed his left cheek with it. "Sorry, you had some makeup on there. By the way, _love_ the dress. So moé~!" she said as she skipped out of his room.

After she left, his hand went up to the cheek that she touched and grinned.

"...I'm never gonna wash this cheek ever again..."

xXx

Miki started sprinting down the steps and collided into her "brother", Kiyoteru. She tried to side-step him, but his foot got caught on the rug and ended up falling on top of her. Papers were scattered everywhere as they both scrambled to collect them. Once they had managed to collect them all, and after Miki finished apologizing, Kiyoteru doke slapped her. "Miki...please...shut..._up_..."

She yelped and began to rub her forehead. _Uh oh, looks like somebody hasn't had any caffeine in two hours... _He did look a little more tired than usual, but he's just that kind of person to over-do his work load. She handed him his papers and started to twiddle her thumbs. "Um, Kiyoteru-" He groaned but she ignored him, "do you need some coffee or something? I'm going to the kitchen right now so maybe I can-"

"Yes!" she jumped at his sudden outburst while his cheeks were starting to turn pink from embarrassment. "Uh, um, I mean...A coke would be fine, I am a little thirsty..."

Miki grinned. Can't be Kiyoteru without caffeine! She nodded and started walking back downstairs. "Alrighty then! I'll make you a cup of black coffee and leave it inside your office. Does that sound ok?"

He couldn't help himself as he smiled at her. "That sounds wonderful. Oh, and Miki?" She stopped and turned around to face him. "Yes?" The corners of his mouth went down a little as he looked a little hesitant. "Uh, sorry about hitting you..." he started to rub the back of his neck as his cheeks turned a darker shade of pink. "I've been a little stressed out lately and -"

She laughed and shook her head. "No worries Kiyoteru-sensei. I understand. Just try to take it easy after I bring you your coffee, 'kay?" she didn't wait for him to respond and slid onto the banister. She was even more eager to get to the kitchen now that she had another reason to go there.

He couldn't help but laugh at her childish antics. "I wonder why she's so excited about making coffee?" he wondered out loud and shrugged. "Well, it certainly beats having her mope around all day, I almost forgot how she sounded like when she laughed..." he stopped and checked his watch before breaking out into a tizzy and rushed to his room.

xXx

Finally, after taking all of those stops, Miki arrived into the kitchen. She couldn't help the smile coming onto her face as the warm blush started to bloom on her pale cheeks. She recognized the messy blue hair from the back of a certain ice cream-loving fanatic. Taking a lock of her red hair between her fingers, she began to nervously twirl it around, suddenly having second thoughts. _Would he be...pleased to see me? No, he probably wouldn't. After all, I have been avoiding him for almost a month..._ She snapped out of it to mentally slap herself and clenched her fists. _**No**! Stop being so damn pessimistic Miki! Do what Luka-sama told you to do! _

She sucked in a deep breath, sprinted towards his direction, and glomped him from behind while yelling, "GOOD EVENING KAITO-SAMA~!" He yelped and literally jumped a foot up in the air before turning around to see the cherry-haired girl clinging onto his scarf. She giggled and waved to him with a free hand. "Hiya! Listen, I just wanted to let you know before I-" she stopped mid-sentence because he grabbed her off his back, and flipped her around to face him.

She gasped and became suddenly frightened by the dark look in his eyes. He scowled at her and felt herself shrink back a little. _I-I've never seen him like that before... _In her mind, the thought he hated her had crossed itself before he surprised her by pulling her body close to him and hugged her tightly. Miki was too shock to say anything as she felt her heart speed up and her face growing unnaturally hot. His arms were wrapped around her limp ones as she rested her chin on his shoulder. They stayed like for a few more minutes (felt like eternal bliss to her) until he stopped and let her go. The corners of her mouth twitched as a pout was threatening to form even though she felt like grinning from ear to ear.

He lightly touched her shoulders as he leaned forward, his lips barely brushing against her ear, and whispered in a husky voice, "Why were you running away from me?"

Against her will, her body shivered as she was struck speechless. He captivated her, she couldn't get her tongue to move or have her mouth form the right words. He pulled away as his cerulean eyes looked into her ruby-red ones, waiting for her to say something, anything, to him. When she still couldn't, she shook her head and shrugged. He looked confused for a moment before letting her go.

Miki looked up at his face and started to wring her hands nervously until she finally forced the words to come out. "I-I want-ted t-to ask...", she took in a deep breath to steady her quivering voice, "...ask y-you about M-Miku-chan..." she finished. She focused her attention back to her feet and tucked a stray lock of red hair behind her ear.

He tilted his head to side in confusion. "Really? What about Miku-chan?" _And don't tell me all the crap Miku's been doing to you since you went mute on us_, he bitterly thought._ It always seemd to be about the same thing, Miku picking on Miki, Miki smiling at her and trying to ignore her hurtful comments-_ "Are you and Miku-chan dating?" _...or Miki asking me random questions from out of the blue_. She caught him off guard as he looked back at her ivory face, which had a tint of dark pink on her cheeks. That's when it hit him.

He never really looked at her clearly the way he looked at Miku, Meiko and all the other women in the household. Even though her face was a lot paler than Miku's, it was fuller, giving her a soft, cherubic look. She had large, clear eyes and her irises shone a brilliant shade of red, uncanningly similar to rubies. Every time she blinked, her long, thick eye-lashes seemed to caress her cheeks before opening up and lightly grazing her brow. Her lips were full, not thin like Miku's or "pouty" like Lily's... He finally understood what he meant.

_She really is beautiful_.

It all made sense. She was another victim of Miku's jealous rampage, not only because their names were similar, but because Miki had her beat in just about everything. Vanity and personality wise. That would explain why she was the only one Miku resorted to actually physically attack. To tarnish her image in hopes to enhance her own. He began to feel enraged that he had never seen it like that before. _Or maybe I did..._ He remembered all of those times he stood up for her when her own best friend, Lily, couldn't. If he was able to succeed into making Miku shut up for nearly a month, the only time that nobody was at each other's throats, then Miki must mean something to him. _Could it be that this whole time I was actually trying to protect-_

"Earth to Kaito! Kaito-sama, are you alright? Was that a wrong thing for me to ask?" He snapped out of it when she waved a gloved hand in front of his face and noticed her worried expression. He lightly shook his head a little before stuttering. "Wh-what? Huh? Sorry, what were you trying to tell me?"

Miki repressed a sigh from slipping from her lips and continued to look straight at him. "Um, I asked you if it's true about you and...Miku-chan...you know...being...together..." The more she talked, the quieter she became as she started to fidget again and began to twirl a lock of her hair between her fingers, afraid of his answer. Her fears were confirmed by the pained look in his eyes.

"Y-yeah, we are..." he said, a pang of guilt hit him. Hard. The look in Miki's eyes didn't make him feel any better. She started to shuffle her feet and looked away from him. "O-oh...Okay, I was just, that was just...", she took a deep breath to steady her wavering voice,"...I-I got to go make Kiyoteru-sensei some coffee, I promised to make him a cup..." She didn't leave automatically and stayed rooted at the spot near him. After several, very awkward, minutes she shuffled to the cabinet and pulled out the coffee pot and maker. She could feel his eyes following her every move.

_Oh, this is quite lovely, isn't it Miki? _she thought to herself sarcastically. _I might as well become a freakin' hermit again since the guy I love really is going out with that **dreadful**! _

She slammed the coffee maker on the countertop, causing Kaito to flinch in surprise.

_**Deceitful**! _She knocked over countless bottles of spices as she dug through the cupboard again to look for the ground coffee. Once she found it, she stomped over the broken shards of glass and filled a cup of water to pour into the maker.

Kaito was looking at her with eyes wide with fear. _Sh-she's actually really, really scary when she's m-mad! _He started to take several steps back, fearing that there was more to come. He was right.

He yelped as he narrowly dodged a huge sack of flour from knocking him over, hitting the wall with a hard _thunk_!The second it hit the wall, the sack ruptured open and exploded in a huge gust of powdery white. Once the flour settled, the entire kitchen looked as though it was covered in an ashen blanket. It was _everywhere_.

**_Words laced with venom_**! Miki continued to stomp around the kitchen, leaving a clear trail in her wake. Before she was about to unleash her wrath on another defenseless object, Lily dashed in with a panicked expression spead across her face. She ignored the fact that Miki was covered entirely in white and grabbed her by the shoulders. Miki was swerved around and looked directly into Lily's dark azure eyes, which were filled with rage. Miki's anguish almost completely evaporated as she felt her body tense up.

"Lily-chan, what's wrong? What are you angry about-"

"It's that bi*** Gumi! The little traitor..." she hissed in a gruff voice. Miki was taken back by her tone and by the amount of malice hidden inside her words. _Gumi? I know Gumi-chan doesn't settle well with Lily-chan, but what could she have done to- _She was cut short from her thoughts as Lily took a firm grip on her hand and began to drag her along. "Come on, you'll see what I mean. And one more thing...", she slightly cocked her head to the side to take a small peek at Miki's blanched face,"Can I beat the sh** out of her?"

Miki's eyes grew as big as saucers. "N-no! What're you talking about, I don't have a clue why you're dragging me along with you and then you have to ask me something like-"

"You'll know what once we get to the studio!"

"Well, can you at least tell me what's happening at the studio-"

"Dammit Miki! If I'll try to tell you, I'ma get get even more pissed off than I already am if I tell you what that ungrateful bi***-"

Kaito stood at the sidelines, listening and watching the girls closely. _Gumi? What's she doing in the studio anyway? Master hasn't made any plans to use her for any new songs yet or anybody else..._ He grew even more confused as he started to follow them, keeping a healthy distance away from Lily. Everybody knew what she was capable of doing the last time she got into a fight with Meiko... He shuddered at the thought.

Several minutes had passed until Miki could faintly hear singing..._ Huh? Who could that be? I thought we had a day off today... _Miki's hand went out to reach for the doorknob but was beaten to it by Lily's swift kick at the metal door, knocking it clear off from it's hinges. Miki and Kaito paled as Lily stormed right in. They looked at each other, thinking the same thing: _Damn girl! _

The two girls abruptly stopped singing as they turned to face the three intruders. A gasped slipped through Miki's mouth as she saw Gumi's fingers interwined with Miku's. Gumi's eyes widened as she was overcame with guilt. It seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but the moment she caught sight of the red question mark-shaped ahoge, her throat began to feel painfully tight. She was singing Our Star, the song she promised to have a duet with Miki, but instead was seen singing it with the one person she knew Miki couldn't stand.

She yanked her hand out of Miku's and stuttered,"M-Miki-chan! I swear, i-it's not wh-what it l-looks like!" Miki's face hardened as she looked directly into Miku's cyan eyes.

"That's funny, I could've sworn that bit**y Diva told you that she hated your voice and your hair!" Lily snapped, feeling her anger rise. "How _dare_ you do this to Miki! After everything she's done for you, you turn your back on her and crawl back to the one person who tortured you until Miki stood up for you!" she screeched.

Gumi flinched and tried to hide behind Miku who side-stepped out of her way. She let out a high-pitched giggle and sneered at Lily. "Still going out of your way to spite me, eh Lily-chan~"

Miki had to restrain Lily from striking Miku who laughed her sickenly sweet laugh. "Poor Miki, you're beginning to lose your grip on your 'friends'. How long are you going to try to keep this up?" she jeered. The look in Miki's maroon eyes was enough proof to her that she was finally getting to her. She was beginning to snap.

She nonchalantly flipped her teal hair and gave Kaito a sweet smile. "Hello there Kaito dear~" she chirped. Kaito balled his hands into tight fists infuriated by her indifference. Miku noticed how tensed he looked and feighned a hurt expression on her delicate face. "What is it Kaito? Why do you look so angry?" she pouted. When he still didn't say anything to her, she felt genuinely annoyed at him. _Huh, so he's starting to wise up now..._

She sighed and plastered a fake smile while trying to appear innocent. "Oh, so you're giving me the silent treatment~? I haven't done anything wrong, all I did was ask Gumi here if she'd like to perform a duet with me~"

Before Lily could retort to Miku's statement, she felt Miki's grip loosen and saw her march up to Miku. Even Miku seemed a little surprised as she saw the red-head walk to her, with murderous intent in her eyes. Miku backed up a little, her smile tensing as she tried to make it look as if though she wasn't bothered by her. Lily and Kaito couldn't move, they could feel Miki's malevolent aura surrounding the area as she backed Miku up to a wall. Miku's smile faltered as she felt the wall to her back and looked at the other three with pleading eyes.

"O-oh come on! Don't be like that, it's not in your nature to look so..._vicious_." she nervously giggled. Honestly, she was now terrified of Miki. Miki was known to be the klutzy, bubbly, happy-go-lucky sort of Vocaloid. Nobody had ever seen her look so cruel and vindictive. And all of that negative emotions was directed at Miku. She held up her hands in the surrender guesture and forced the muscles in her mouth to go up even though she felt her whole body quake in fear. "Tee hee! Okay, Gumi and I can call off the recording and-" she was stopped short by a stinging, burning sensation on her right cheek.

The slap resonated in the room, thanks to the acoustics of the area. The three of them stood there, dumbfounded. Lily was speechless, even though she was cheering on the inside that the tealette finally got, she had it coming. Kaito was impressed, yet again, at Miki's hidden beast. Gumi's hands went up to her mouth as she mentally squealed, scared out of her mind that she might be Miki's next victim. Miku's hand went up to her cheek and began to rub it as she held back her tears.

"Y-you little bit**! How dare you mar my beautiful face!" she screeched. Miki looked at her with cold eyes and hissed,"_I hate you_." Miku gasped as she saw Miki turn around and walk to Gumi. Gumi closed her eyes shut and her whole body tensed up, waiting to feel some kind of pain Miki would induce on her. Nothing.

She cautiously opened one eye and saw Miki's pained expression as she took in a deep breath. "I-I thought you were my friend..." her eyes flashed back to the familiar ruby-red hue until she looked away from Gumi's face. "...but I guess Luka was right after all..." She pushed Gumi aside and ran past Lily and Kaito.

Lily snapped out of it and cried out,"Miki! Come back!" and sprinted afterwards.

Kaito looked at Miki's fading figure before looking back at Miku, disgust evident in his eyes. "Miku..." She jolted as she heard him talk to her. For a brief moment, a look of relief crossed her face until she saw the look in his eyes.

She shranked back a little and bit her lower lip. "L-listen, I-I know that this looks bad and all, but I didn't think-"

"That was low, even for you."

She flinched at the sharp edge in his voice as he turned around and ran after Lily. The only noises left in the studio was her heavy breathing, and Gumi's sobs.

* * *

A/N:

Okay, I lied. I'm planning on making another chapter since this one was going to be incredibly long and I didn't want to over do it. I mean, this was extremely close to 5,000 words! Guess this had a lot useless details thrown in here...

I noticed that on Youtube, there are more Gumi/Miku duets than there are for SF-A2 miki/Miku and SF-A2 miki/Gumi. So that's what inspired me to use Gumi as a potential backstabber/scapegoat on Miku's part. But in no shape or form do I dislike Gumi! She's one of my top fav, I love her because of the quality of her voice and for the fact that it sounds incredibly pleasing to hear~

Now, about the cross-dressed Len...neh, I don't like that part. Not. At. All. I was having a hard time thinking what the girls could have done to him and that was the best (and most commonly used idea) I could think of. And nun moe isn't well known, he's just lacking the big gun is all. But I was too lazy to change that and I kinda don't plan on changing it...Eh, or I could change my mind. ^^"

I can't type a decent dialogue for Gakupo! Gah, please forgive me... OTL

And for those who are either true or hopeless romantics, advice is greatly appreciated! This was horrible...OTL

...Anyway, I'm really sorry for doing that, I hope none you mind it too much! ^^"


	5. Venomous Games

A/N:

Alright, here's the next chapter~!

This one is really depressing to me, but recently the school that I've been tutoring is focusing on the negative effects of bullying and I decided to write my thoughts out on how this could effect young girls. I feel horrible using Miki and the others this way, but it does somehow give it a more realistic view I hope... I'm finding it really hard to see how I had originally intended this to be more of a lovey-dovey kind of Fic, but now it has all of these twists and I'm shaping the characters differently than what I usually see them as.

*sigh* I guess things don't always go as planned since I've made this much more complicated than what I had originally expected it to be. Okay, enough with my silly rantings and, regardless of what I just said, please enjoy the chapter! ^-^"

Chapter 5: Venomous Games

* * *

_"The ones that you love the most are usually the ones that hurt you the most. "_

* * *

"Miki!" Lily paused for a moment to catch her breath. "Miki wait up!"

Miki finally stopped, her shoulders slowly rising up and down as Lily could hear her jagged sobs. By now, Miki should be used to this.

To the pain.

To Miku's sick pleasure of playing those twisted games with her.

But she wasn't.

She buried her face in her gloved hands, feeling the tears being soaked up by them. She sniffed a couple times before she felt Lily's hand rest on her shoulder.

"Come on Red, forget about four-eyes and the tramp over there and we can go-"

"Shut up."

Lily jerked and instantly took her hand off of her. The biting edge to Miki's voice...

"Huh? Okay, look, I know Miku's a bit** and everything, but you can't just go around and snap at the people who want-"

"I told you to shut up!" she cried and turned around. Lily had a dumbfound look on her face. Miki was actually fighting with her.

She felt her pent up anger build up again as she menacingly whispered, "Excuse me?"

Miki's eyes hardened as they changed to a dark maroon color. She didn't back away from Lily and instead walked up to her face. "I didn't stutter. You heard me."

Her cockiness got to Lily as she started to dangerously walk closer to the red-head.

By the time Kaito reached them, he was about to smile at the two girls but stopped suddenly when he felt the tension in the air. Miki and Lily were glaring at one another, almost looking as if though they were going to pounce one another and claw out each others throats.

His breath was caught in his throat as he saw the two best friends appear at war with each other.

Lily broke the silence.

"Since when did you decide to grow a backbone?" she snarled. "Would've been useful against _Miku_, but not your best friend. What the hell did I do to you to make you act like a little bit** to me? What, did I _annoy_ the little crybaby?"

Miki flinched but regained her composure. "Lily," she said quietly,"you've done lots of things to annoy me. You're actually a very annoying person."

Lily's mouth clamped shut. She didn't expect Miki to actually talk back to her like that. She felt a sharp pang in her chest, Miki's remark actually hurt. _Does she really mean that?_

_"_Tsk! Since when did you start acting all high-and-mighty? Just because you've got to lay a little slap on Miku doesn't mean anything! Did you finally decide to grow a backbone?" she retorted.

Miki shrugged. "So? You were too busy most of the time acting like a whore to impress my brother. I wouldn't expect for you to have noticed."

That did it.

Lily screamed and lunged towards her, hands outstretched wanting nothing more than to wrap her slim fingers on that pretty neck of hers until she felt someone pull her back.

"DAMMIT KAITO! LET ME GO, JUST LET ME RIP THE LITTLE FUC**R'S MOUTH OFF!" she screeched, thrashing around, hoping to lay one hit on Kaito as Miki looked at her with an amused expression.

"Wow, I see that you've set this time aside to humiliate yourself, Lily-chan." She giggled. She couldn't believe what she was saying. She couldn't stop herself. After being tortured for almost two years, staying silent, holding herself back, it felt good to feel powerful.

Lily easily got riled up and lost control.

Miki could keep her cool and let the words flow freely through her mouth.

But she made one mistake.

Failing to realize that Lily threw Kaito off her, she sprinted towards her and tackled Miki onto the ground. Just as she was going to clasp her hands on her throat, Miki managed to kick her off and scrambled up off the floor.

Kaito ran back to grab onto Lily who continued trying to get out of his grasp. She looked over at Miki, maroon meeting azure, and screamed,"So what? You think _you're _such great company?"

She was so angry, so hurt from all of Miki's tauntings that she couldn't take it anymore.

"You think I like looking at your miserable face? You think I like listening to just how unhappy you are because of what Miku's done to you? All of that poor victim self-pity sh*t!"

"Lily that's enough!" Kaito tightened his grip on her as she continued to lash out at him. "Leave her alone, just drop it!" He looked up to see Miki's face as he noticed her facade finally broke.

Miki's eyes widened and looked at Lily, her eyes willing her to stop. She started to revert back to her old, spineless self as she began to shuffle her feet.

"...I-if I told you about the poem I read in Kiyoteru's sensei's room," she mumbled, "then maybe you'd understand how I-"

Lily ignored Kaito and scoffed . "Shut up about your stupid books! I swear, I think you live in some kind of fantasy world! Maybe Miku's got a good reason to bit** at you, maybe that's why Gumi left you!"

"Lily I told you to stop!" he screamed as Miki started to bite her lower lip, desperately trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to leak out.

The damage was already done, Miki brought it upon herself. Lily knew she sounded cruel, she knew that her words sounded so vicious. But they wouldn't stop spilling out.

"Maybe that's why Kaito would never like a pitiful brat like you! Grow up and get a life!"

Miki looked like a rabbit, caught in the headlights of a car. She felt herself tremble all over, the weight of the emotional burden crashing down on her frail body.

Before Kaito could get her out of the room, he lost his grip on her as she elbowed him in the ribs. As he doubled over, he grabbed onto Lily's ankle. She gasped and looked down at him with a hostile look in her eyes.

"Let me go you fuc*ing bast**d! It's your fault too! If she never liked you, she wouldn've never gone through hell because of Miku!" she saw a flash of pain and regret in his eyes but ignored it. She tore her eyes away from him as she focused on Miki. The young girl was trying to wipe her tears with her hands as she tried to avoid Lily's eyes from boring into her.

"I-I guess y-you're right, L-Lily." she said quietly. "I-I always thought that y-you were at least m-my b-best friend-"

"And I thought you were mine!" she shouted back. "It cuts both ways, Miki!"

Miki cringed as she fumbled with her hair, which had gotten into her eyes and reached down to touch the star on her chest. She couldn't take it anymore, it was too much.

"Miki!" Kaito gasped. He felt so stupid. He cursed himself for hurting her like that, for staying in the background, for not stopping the fight sooner. He let go of Lily and pushed himself off the ground. "Don't go!"

But it was already too late.

She was gone the moment he called out her name.

xXx

The moment her feet touched the floor, she collapsed inside of her"secret" area. Before the incident with Gumi and Miku, Gumi had created a space simulation inside of Miki's rocket. She remembered feeling overjoyed because Gumi had taken the time to when she noticed the moments when Miki just stared up into the sky, wishing to be back among them with her family. It was soothing, but it felt wrong. She left after only being inside for 15 minutes.

The next area she visited was her "birth" chamber that she shared with Kiyoteru and Yuki. After one of the workers from AH Software saved her from the wreckaged, she grew attatched to the area and came there when she wanted time alone. It was very different this time around as she passed one of the Masters that helped revive her. He gave her a puzzled look as he asked what she was doing.

"Oh! Um, I just wanted to...well, I _needed_ to find a place to clear my thoughts..." she mumbled while avoiding his gaze, much to his annoyance.

He reprimanded her, reminding her that she had no business loitering around the area. As usual, he was just like the others, she was threatened to be uninstalled if she proved to be troublesome again.

Her head was already bobbing up and down, it had become a habit to instantly agree with them to prove that she understood.

Until she heard him say "uninstall".

She stopped nodding her head and looked as if though she was lost in her own little world. He grew incredibly agitated and threatened her out. It took her a while to register that he was speaking to her until he grabbed her by the arm and began to escort her to the door. Without another word, she lightly touched the blue star and was gone in a flash of blue light.

xXx

Only under an enormous amount of stress did she venture out to the Vocaloid garden. She never understood why she only came there when she felt like there was no other option, but it did seem to have a more calming effect on her. After all, this was the place she spent hours thinking about how things went wrong.

_I mean, I know I wasn't well-loved in the beginning. But Gumi was willing to take me in when we met. And Kaito stood up for me before I met Lily-chan-_ Kaito's rejection, Gumi's betrayal and the fight with Lily cut into her deeply as her body began to involuntarily tremble all over.

She was forced out of her thoughts when she landed in an apple orchard and gasped. Once she realized where she had dropped in, she breathed the small flowers sweet fragrance. A smile formed on her lips as she cupped one of the red fruits in her hands. Her mind drifted off to little Yuki, who instantly loved her the moment they met. Yuki grew accustomed to calling her "Onee-chan" and loved Miki's red hair because its color was similiar to her favorite fruit: apples. She released her hold on it and took in a shaky breath, doing her best to erase the image of her innocent, angelic face. She lightly traced the star shaped charms on her cuffs and started to think about the Masters threats thrown at her.

_Would it be considered horrible to think that maybe... _She screamed and jumped out of the tree. The second before her body made contact with the ground, she disappeared.

xXx

Miki warped back into her room as she collapsed onto her bed and hugged herself. She could hear her own shallow breathing as she tried to force oxygen into her lungs. She balled her hands into tight fists as she recalled the fight with Lily. That was the very first fight they ever had. She never knew how much it would've hurt. Even though she was in pain, she started laughing.

She knew she sounded insane, but she didn't care.

_It's so simple! Why didn't I ever think of it before?_ she asked herself when she finally calmed down. The pain in her chest was slowly disappearing as her breathing turned back to normal. The idea seemed fool-proof. She absent-mindedly twirled a loose strand of hair as she stared up at the ceiling.

_...but how could I sneak in? They always threatened to kick me out..._ she thought and started giving the idea some serious thought.

She tossed and turned in her bed as she thought back to the moments that led to her sudden realization. A small sigh escaped her lips as she curled up into a tight ball.

_...I won't be able to go back home though. Won't they miss me? Do they even miss me? ...why did I even bother coming here in the first place... It was a huge mistake, a horrible misconception. This place isn't what I believed it would be..._ Her thoughts were interrupted as she drifted off to sleep.

xXx

A chorus of cicada caused Miki to stir in her sleep. As their singing grew in intensity, she slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by the darkness enveloping her slim frame. She pushed the covers aside and walked up to her window. Streams of light spilled through the gaps of the drapes and left small pools at her feet, the only brightness available. Touching the corner of the window sill, she pushed aside the drapes and opened up the window to allow the warm summer air through. She caught the light scent of cherry blossoms from the garden and breathed in deeply.

She moved her head away from the window and took a quick glance at the clock on her nightstand. _5:47, it'll be dawn soon. I think I should leave now..._

She took in another deep breath and turned around to face the door. As she took another step closer to it, she felt her foot kick something. She looked down to see a little black book. "Huh? What's this, I don't remember having this before..." Just as she picked up the book off from the floor, a letter fell out and landed in front of her feet. She scrunched her thin eyebrows together and bent over to pick it up. It was a simple piece of white paper folded in half with her name scrawled on the front. She traced her name and recognized immediately that it was in Lily's handwriting. Her hand began to tremble as her mind started to flood with the possibilities of what the letter could contain. To her surprise, the letter didn't accuse or belittle her:

_Dear Miki,_

_Kaito and I looked everywhere for you! We kinda figured you'd stop by your room sometime so I hope you'll read this. I_

_just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I got carried away with the whole, you know. I shouldn't have yelled at you or said those _

_things __to you after everything you put through. Best friends shouldn't treat each other like that! Sorry that I wasn't acting like yours. _

_Just hoping that __you're doing better and to come meet me and Kaito tomorrow, he got really worried about you. Oh, and don't mind the _

_wussy if he starts compl__aining about sore ribs, I didn't even hit him hard! _

_Anyway, I just want you to know that there's NO WAY in hell I'd leave you for that stuck-up bit**! I've got your back 'kay Red? You kinda _

_already __know how hard it is for me to apologize, but you're worth it. And you kinda know how I secretly have a diary? I got you this one to _

_write down all the __crap you don't want other people to know. Trust me, it works. If it didn't, Miku's neck would've already been dangling from the _

_side by now! XD _

_I'll make it up to you by taking you out to that new bar they got downtown! I hope you know that I was kidding about the bar. Well, talk to _

_you tomorrow, I hope. _

_Love xoxoxoxo_

_Lily_

Miki couldn't stop the tears from muddling up Lily's messy handwriting. She wiped them away as a weak smile came on her lips. She lightly shook her head in denial, "Humans are all the same. She'll conform under Miku's standards one day. Then I'll be left all alone..." she told herself sadly as she opened the book and flipped through the blank pages. She walked to her bedside table and opened up the drawer and took out her red fountain pen. With a trembling hand, she began to write...

* * *

A/N:

Wow, **huge** turn of events. O.O

I never intended for this to go like that, this is A LOT different than what I had planned. This was suppose to be a fluff, but it seems like I got to be a little more realistic and placed down the evils of bullying. However, I still think that this would be too harsh to show to second graders!

I might present this to the freshmen, I know a few of those girls who could learn a thing or two. Anyway, see that button underneath this? Please click it and let me know what you think about this! I'm running low on ideas again so some suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :D


	6. Fatal Intentions

A/N:

Alrighty then, sorry for the long wait! Got grounded for an event that only xFearlessPurple21x knows about...yeah and Writer's Block Syndrome is also merciless... OTL

Chapter 6: Fatal Intentions

* * *

_"I was much further out than you thought,_  
_And not waving but drowning..."_

* * *

Sunlight was beginning to leak through the window, expelling the darkness from her room. As Miki quietly closed the door behind her, she tiptoed towards her closet and fumbled through for something to wear. After she had found what she was looking for, she took the towel off of her head and started to brush her freshly showered hair.

She had changed her bed sheets when she had woken up, which were covered by the white flour that was stuck on her clothes from the other day, and cleaned up her room. After she had finished changing into her usual attire, her eyes caught a glimpse of the diary Lily had given her the other day, lying on her nightstand.

With a forlorn smile, she opened it up and tore out the three pages that she had written inside and folded them neatly in half. After she had made sure that they were safetly tucked away inside a fold of her dress, she paced around back and forth, unsure of what she was going to do. She could go through with this without them knowing, they'd believe that she had just run away. That is, until they'd find her...she pushed the thought aside and her body began to tremble. It was unnerving.

_I-I'll go see...Lily first_. she thought as she lightly touched the star on her chest and vanished.

xXx

Miki's feet landed without a sound, thanks to Lily's yellow carpeted floor. She observed Lily's room, her eyes wide in amazement. This was the very first time she had ever set foot in there and was amazed by the many things her friend collected. Plushies littered her abode, pink was almost everywhere, she had her very own puppy pillowpet, picutres of all of the Vocaloids chibi-fied to name a few.

When Miki moved her leg to take a step, she heard a _squeak!_ and jerked to a stop. She slowly peered down and noticed that she had stepped onto a cat-shaped doll. Ironically enough, it looked a lot like the Hello Kitty plushie that Iroha had complained about, how she had misplaced it several months ago. Her lips twitched violently as she tried to suppress a giggle from slipping.

_So **this** is why Lily never lets anybody into her room. She has a secret cute collection!_ she commented as she noticed the pictures of cute animals and chibi people. As she was about to pick up her flower-shaped alarm clock, something soft caught her eye. Papers were leaking out from behind a pink pashmina that was nailed to a board. She moved it out of her way and her eyes grew wide at what Lily had tried, very poorly, to conceal.

It was a sketch of herself and Lily, holding hands, smiling.

She recognized the pose and the outfits that they had on, it was one of those rare moments when Lily wore shorts, albeit _very_ short, and wore a tank top that actually covered her stomach. Miki's outfit was similar to Lily's, but made sure that hers was more "modest" by wearing bermudas. She smiled at it and lightly fingered around the lines, being extremely careful not to smudge Lily's hard work. It was until that very moment Miki realized something.

She didn't really know Lily.

She had no idea Lily liked these sort of things.

She had no idea that she even kept them from her.

Heck, she didn't have a clue that Lily even liked to draw!

Even when they both claimed to be "best friends" and followed the guidelines of "we'll-never-keep-secrets-from-each-other", they still did.

Miki never bothered telling Lily about her crush on Kaito, but apparantley she had an easier time telling Gumi about it. She knew Lily would have never made fun of her for liking spazzy, sweet, ice cream-addicted guys. _After all, didn't she tell me about _her_ crush on my brother? _

Guilt began to eat away at her conscience and she swiftly pulled the letter out of her dress and placed it on Lily's nightstand. She stole a quick glance at her sleeping figure and smiled to herself. Obviously, Lily looked very different when she was asleep compared to whenever she was awake. Her features were much more...softer.

_She looks so peaceful_. It was a nice change from the usual ferocious, profane, and brash young woman that she is. However, Miki's perspective of Lily had changed considerably now that she had a glimpse of what she had hidden from her, from everyone, in the Vocaloid household.

Right before Miki was able to touch the star, Lily shivered and started mumbling something incoherrent in her sleep, causing Miki to jerk to a stop. She was afraid that Lily was getting ready to wake up until she noticed her rubbing her arms. Miki finally took notice that Lily was wearing very thin, black, lacy, and very...indecent night wear. Miki picked up a pillow with a frog on it and placed her head in it to muddle up her sigh.

After she took her face out of the pillow, she couldn't help the smile from coming and pulled the duvet over Lily to tuck her in. By impulse, her hand reached over and began to stroke Lily's soft hair. She was going to miss her most of all. _But it's too late for me...Maybe someday, I hope, we'll meet each other again..._

She picked the letter up from her nightstand and left it on a pillow beside her and left.

xXx

Miki wasn't quite so lucky when it came to Miku's room. Unfortunatley, she landed on the Diva's unlimited supply of makeup that was littered across her room and heard a few of them crack. Once her eyes were accustomed to the darkness, Miki was appalled by the mess. Everything looked demolished. Miku never struck her as the type of person to be a slob...

She started to take several steps towards the sleeping body and peered over her.

She looked like a wreck.

After the event with Miki, it almost seemed as if though she was beginning to lose her grip on her power over everyone. Miki came to a conclusion; Miku must have lost it.

She had a feeling that she should be happy for this, that she was able to see that Miku can't always have her way with everything.

But she couldn't. She even felt a little sorry for her. She finally learned the real reason Miku acts the way she does and it did seem very natural to a person who was used to being praised, to have all of that attention showered upon her to end up being competitive like that.

But Miki decided not to think much of it and pushed aside a pile of (_dirty?_) clothes off of Miku's nighstand to make room for her letter.

She turned around to look back at her tormentor. Her normally neat, teal hair was disheveled, her mascara had runned down on her face, leaving dark streaks on her cheeks and down to her chin.

It was blantanly obvious that she didn't bother washing away the rest of her eyewear and Miki couldn't help but cringe. She never understood why women wore makeup when she honestly believed that everyone looked much better, more natural, without it. When she told Lily that on the day she came to wish her luck on her debut concert, Lily scoffed and simply stated that she was "too young to understand its full potential".

Nonetheless, Miki went through Miku's bedroom bathroom and ran a cloth she found on the sink with lukewarm water. After she squeezed the excess water out, she quietly made her way back to Miku's bedside and began to gently wash away the mascara residue off her face.

Lucky for her that Miku was a heavy sleeper, she found that out when Meiko "secretly" threw a party when Miku was sick and said nothing the next day because she slept right through it.

Once she made Miku seem more presentable, she dropped the cloth on the floor and gave her a long, hard stare.

Even after everything she was put through, she didn't have the heart to ignore somebody who needed help, including Miku. She remembered the day Miku tried to welcome her, but quickly lost her temper and interest in her when she learned that she was only half robot and because she kept asking questions non-stop.

But the short time she was friends with Miku was worthwhile. She had made her seem...important. Wanted, even. The way Miku showed her off to everyone, saying that she had so much potential, had wonderful hair and pointed out every detail, no matter how small and insignificant, and made it seem like it was a big deal. Miki felt like her heart would burst from sheer happiness of feeling special, she loved having Miku's attention on her. _What went wrong?_

She hated herself.

She hated herself for still wanting to be friends with her, even on those incredibly rare moments when Miku was nice to her.

She gasped when she realized that she was softly laughing. _That's the funny thing about her_, she thought, _Miku's actually very charming when she chooses to be. She really is nice when she doesn't have an audience to play on..._

Miki turned her back to the sleeping diva and lightly kicked aside a half-eaten leek that was left on the floor. She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled as she said her last words to the young tealette before leaving.

"I hope you don't come to regret this."

xXx

The last room was the hardest and most nerve-wracking to visit of them all. Anxiety was eating her away as she forgot to put any force in her legs and collapsed on top of a ridiculously large, carnival-sized blue ice cream cone toy.

The second the rest of her body caught up with her, the seams bursted wide open and she was instantly showered in small, white pellets. It was everywhere, in her hair, her clothes, on his floor, and some even managed to land on his signature scarf!

A shy smile soon began to spread across her face as she stopped long enough to think that she was in _his_ room. She felt her heart beat in its usual irregular pattern whenever she thought of him. The memory of when he first stepped foot in her room resurfaced and felt her face grow hotter until she remembered her disappointment that followed.

A small pout came about as she pulled out the last letter and, with trembling hands, placed it next to his head, on a pillow adjacent to him. Her hand had lightly grazed his cheek and she jerked her hand back and held it close to her face, feeling the burning heat rise up to her face and could hear the blood pumping in her ears.

It took her several seconds to realize that she was panting a little, feeling the butterflies in her stomach do a wild dance that made her feel even more nervous.

_Gosh, I feel like such a creeper!_ she thought as her body refused to move. Her eyes glanced at his digital clock and nearly popped out of their sockets, it was already 6:23 in the morning! It didn't feel as if though she spent about an hour getting ready to leave.

She quietly went to his side to try and memorize his features one last time. Her gaze soften as her hand slowly went up to his face but stopped and retreated her hand back. She felt incredibly awkward doing this, especially since he had no idea she was in here in the first place. In fact, what she did for the other two before him was a violation of their privacy.

She immediatly felt guilty and tuned around while backing away a little until she heard him talking. "Miki."

She stopped dead in her tracks, and slowly turned around, her heart beating loudly in her chest to the point where it felt like it was threatening to burst out. To her relief, he was only talking in his sleep and turned his back to her.

After taking several minutes to brush off her shaking body, she made another attempt to go near him and turned around to the other side of his bed. _This'll be the last time, I-I'd like to know what it'd feel like..._ she thought as she slowly leaned over, her face just mere inches away from his.

Just as her lips was about to meet his, she stopped when she noticed water droplets falling on the bridge of his nose and rolling down to the sides of his cheeks.

"H-huh?" she quickly moved away from him and lightly touched her cheeks with her fingertips. She let out a sad smile and slowly shook her head as she felt her own tears trickling down the sides of her face. "I can't do it...I-I just can't..."

The tears kept coming, which confused her as to why they did in the first place, and turned her back to him.

"It's too late, I've already decided. Goodbye...Kaito."

xXx

"Ya~awn!" Lily let her mouth flap open and stretched her tired limbs as she started to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Damn, what a night. Couldn't get much sleep thinking all night about her..." she let out a depressed sigh as she pulled the duvet off of her.

"Wait a minute...I don't usually wake up with my duvet over me, it was freakin' hot last night. It's spring time after all-" she stopped as she noticed a white piece of paper laying down on her pillow beside her.

"Huh? What's this..." she flipped it over and saw her name written in an elaborate, red ink that left her "y" curled like a chameleon's tail at the bottom. She looked at it closely and the only person in the whole household (besides Gakupo) who had that sort of handwriting could have been...

"Miki."

The name slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She frantically flipped open the letter and read what was inside:

_Dear Lily,_

_By the time you've woken up and read this, I'll be gone._

_You said that I should grow up, not take all of this too seriously._

_I'm sorry that I couldn't do that. I'm too small, too weak, and _

_the pain __is too big. __I was wrong to believe that you could understand _

_me, but if __anyone __knows why __I'm doing this, then you do, Lily. You _

_told __me to get a life. __I had one, before I came __here, before Miku _

_Hatsune took __it all away from me. __Remember that poem I was _

_trying to tell you about __that I found in Kiyoteru's __room? __This poem _

_explains how I feel now, perfectly __actually. Its by someone __named _

_Stevie Smith, __called _"Not Waving But Drowning."

Nobody heard him, the dead man,  
But still he lay moaning:  
I was much further out than you thought  
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking  
And now he's dead  
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,  
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always  
(Still the dead one lay moaning)  
I was much too far out all my life  
And not waving but drowning.

_That's me, Lil. I'm too far out. Further out than you thought._

_Thanks for being my best friend, I'm sorry that I couldn't be _

_yours, the __one you deserve to have._

_With love,_

_Miki xxx_

_P.S. Please tell Gumi for me that I forgive her, I can't stay mad at her._

The poem sent shivers down her spine as the letter fluttered out of her hand and onto the floor.

She couldn't believe it.

_Miki's...gone?_

Her heart raced as her brain slowly registered what Miki's intentions were.

"N-no...no, no, no, NO!" she screamed as she dashed through her closet and grabbed a yellow sweater and slipped on a pair of black sweatpants before rushing out the door. The first room she ran to was Kiyoteru's and didn't bother to knock as she kicked the door clean off of its hinges.

He woke up with a start. "L-Lily! What's wrong, what's happ-"

She cut him off by roughly grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and started shaking him, screaming at the top of her lungs, "She's gone! Miki's gone!"

xXx

Miku woke up to loud crash and jolted upright in her bed. She felt like she didn't sleep well last night, especially since she didn't bother washing up before sleeping. She put her hands up to her face to feel for the mascara that ran after she had cried herself to sleep only to realize that it was gone and that her face felt oddly smooth.

With a puzzled expression, she got out of her bed and walked to her life-sized mirror to examine her flawless visage.

Clean. Devoid of a single trace of makeup.

She slowly rubbed her face until she heard a pair of frantic footsteps outside her door as it was flung open and landed ontop of her leek-shaped couch. Her mouth opened to let out a scream until she saw the messy tresses of a long-haired blonde girl.

Her eyes were wild as they frantically scanned her room. Once her cesious eyes landed on Miku, they shrunk into thin slits as she hoisted her off the ground, her hands firmly clasped over the tealette's throat. "WHERE IS SHE?" she demanded as Miku tried to claw her way at Lily's hands in a futile attempt to escape.

Her small face was turning into different shades of blue until Rin came stumbling in and peered inside. "M-Miku-sama! What was that noise, it sounded like a dying-MIKU!" she cried as she pounced onto Lily's back and grabbed her hair in huge clumps and started to yank them out of her head.

Lily was caught off guard by Rin's ambush attack and rammed Rin into the wall to shake her off. The sudden impact caused Rin to gasp out in pain as Lily's hair slipped out of her small fingers. With nothing left holding her up, Rin slid down to the floor, losing consciousness as she tried to see what Lily was going to do to Miku before she blacked out.

As Lily pulled the tealette up again, her hands flew up to her face as she cried,"STOP! Please, don't hurt me! It's not my fault, honest!"

Lily had to stiffle back a deranged laugh as she saw Miku's pathetic state. "Oh, so you find it a lot less painful when you hurt others, but then when it comes to you, you just can't _stand_ it, can you? All the sh*t you've put every single one of us through and look at this!"

She shoved Miki's letter in her face and threw her to the ground. "_You_ did that to her! You've corrupted one of the nicest Vocaloids in the house, just because you couldn't get past your huge fuc*ing ego! Damn, I hate how we're all fuc*ing represented by a whiny little bi*ch like you!"

Miku stayed on the ground, her body shaking all over at the dominant female's ranting and flinched everytime she saw her kick one of her possesions and snapped a few things into small pieces.

Once Lily made sure she was finished destroying everything that Miku owned in the room, she collapsed to the floor and began to sob. Lily turned around to face the one person she truly wished was gone, the one she wished she could end her own existance. "I hate you, Miku Hatsune. **_I hate you so much_**."

Miku felt her chest ache. There was so much...pain, malice, and disgust in her words. She stumbled to get up on her feet as she inched closer to the edge of her bed. She knew she couldn't say that she was sorry, what help would it do now?

She bit her lower lip as she whispered,"I-is she...really...g-"

"I don't know, I don't have a fuc*ing clue where she'd be at! Maybe she just ran away, maybe she went back to her home planet, but my gosh, if she ever did anything to hurt herself-" she couldn't finish as she felt newly shed tears roll down her face and buried them behind the palms of her hands.

Just as Miku moved her hand to her pillow, she heard something crumple beneath it and jerked it away. To her surprise, there was a letter, identical to Lily's but with her name on the front of the flap. She gingerly picked it up and stared at it with an empty expression. "What is this?" she asked as she lifted it up for Lily to see.

Her eyes widened in surprise as Miku flicked it back to her. Once she caught the letter in her hand, she heard Miku speak again.

"You read it," she demanded."Read it to me."

Lily was dangeroulsy close to losing it and snapping the tealette's pretty neck in half. After everything she had just said, she _still_ acted as if though she had power over her.

"No," she said while dropping it back onto her bedsheets."If Miki went through the trouble to make you one, then you've got to read it. She probably had some a few things she wanted to tell you before she left." She curtly replied as she studied Miku's face.

"Lily, read it to me." she says again and starts pouting at her like a spoiled child.

"No!" Lily tells her again as she inches towards her bed, causing the girl to back away from her, leading her to edge of her bed. The letter was now firmly clasped inside of her hand as Lily gave Miku a cold stare. "What are you so worried about?" she said in a sweet voice, thrusting the letter into her hands. "If it's not your fault that Miki left?"

Miku looks at the letter in her hands and back at Lily. "...Did you check the AH Software Company?" she said in voice barely above a whisper.

Lily managed to catch it and she got the hint what Miku was trying to say. Her hands clentched into small, tight fists as she contemplated on whether or not she should beat her senseless or wait until after she's read the letter. Miki must have had something important to say to her, she must have if she spared some time for her. "Read it!" she ordered.

For once, Miku did as she was told. With her hands slightly shaking, she flipped it open and read its contents:

_Miku,_

_If I called you a murderer, would that be too strong a word?_

_By the time you'll read this, I'll be dead. That was what you_

_wanted all along, wasn't it? To get rid of competition, to get_

_rid of me completely. Character assassination, they call it._

_I don't know what really went wrong. What made us become_

_such bitter enemies? _

_You have made me hate myself. You have made me feel worthless._

_You have made me want to _die_. _

_I hope that makes you feel good._

_Good job, Miku! I was your victim all right. You are like a spider, _

_waiting in her web to trap its next meal and then slowly devouring _

_it after playing a few rounds. _

_I hope it tastes good Miku! Your victory. _

_Miki_

Lily managed to peer over Miku's shoulder and was shocked at what Miki had to say to her. Miku looks at the letter for a long time before slowly folding it back and left it lying flat on her lap.

Lily expected her to shout.

To tear the letter up.

Say that it was all lies.

Laugh it off.

But she doesn't. She just sits in silence.

Lily scoffs at her and turns her back to the tealette. "Hope you've finally learn what your actions do to people. Maybe I'm being selfish, heartless even, for believing that Miki's the best candidate to do so, to make you see what you've been doing all this time. I'm not gonna stand here and waste my time talking to you, I've got to find her and stop her from doing something that she'll regret."

With that being said, Lily sprinted out of her room, leaving Miku behind with her tormented thoughts.

xXx

Kaito woke up to a series of frantic beatings on his door that grew in intensity as he struggled to drag his tired body out of his bed.

"Alright, I'm coming, hold on a sec." he grumbled as he walked to the door with uneven footing and was greeted by a tear-stained face that belonged to Len. He had to admit that he was startled that it was the very first thing he woke up to see in the morning.

He sighed and ran his tired fingers through his messy hair. "Len, if Rin and Lily put you through hell again, I'm sorry but-"

"Miki ran away last night!" he cried out as he tried to wipe away his tears. He started hiccuping as Kaito stared at him with a dumbstruck look.

"G-gone? What do you mean 'gone'?"

Len stopped crying long enough to glare at him and punched his shoulder. Hard.

"It's because of you, BaKaito! Yeah, I know she likes _you_! Lily told me 'cuz she was running around, screaming that she couldn't find her and that she left behind a letter to her-" he stopped to take a quick breath,"-saying that she was leaving! We don't know where, but she knows that you and Miku had something to do with this!"

Kaito felt insulted. _Because of me? _"What're you talking about? I haven't done a single thing to-"

"Except return her feelings!" he interrutpted. He looked livid at the older man in blue.

"How could you _not_ tell that she liked you? Even I knew that!" It pained him to admit it, but he was determined to hurt Kaito for his mistakes. "I don't know what in the world she saw in you, but you're obviously not the one for her! You didn't care, you didn't listen to her problems..." he clentched his hands into tight fists as his jaw locked in place. _She sometimes tells me what was wrong, what was happening to her...So why him? Why _him_ of all people?_

"...And what did you ever do to try and stop Miku?" Kaito's voice was barely above a whisper. He knew exactly the kind of "problems" Len was talking about. Or in this case, who.

Len was taken by surprise by how surprisingly soft he sounded. He also didn't know the answer to that. He was only good to Miki whenever she had something to say, to vent and to complain about. But...

"You can say to me whatever you want, won't change the fact that we all saw it and did nothing to stop it. But what we can do is go out and look for her." he continued.

Len began to ptotest. "B-but, Lily doesn't even have a clue where she could be at-"

"I do now."

Both of the boys turned around to see a dry-eyed Lily. She slowly walked in and showed them Miku's letter. "I don't know when she left, but if she's gonna do what I think she is, then we better get our asses into the van and speed down to AH Software before it's too late." She was surprised by how calm she sounded when she felt like strangling them for wasting precious time that could've been used to find and save Miki.

Both of them briefly looked at each other. It was clear to Kaito how Len felt about this situation and Len was beginning to see Kaito's growing affections for her.

"Fine." Len grudgingly agreed. He knew fighting wasn't going to get them anywhere.

Kaito nodded and picked up his scarf off of his bed. It caught her letter in one of its folds and slipped to the ground. Lily noticed it and looked at it with wide eyes. He looked a little puzzled at first and bent down to retrieve it.

"What's this?" He started to open it up until Lily snatched it away from him.

"No time to read it now! You can do that while I'm driving." she roughly grabbed his hand and forcefully took him out of his room with Len trailing not far behind.

xXx

Miki shivered. "It's so cold..."

She looked up at the grey sky, having mixed feelings about her decision. She shuddered as she forced her legs to move towards the door and waited for the automatic doors to open.

Nothing.

She sighed. _Of course, it's still too early for anyone to be working. Fine by me, at least there's nobody there to stop me._

With that thought in mind, she trudged along to the side of the building and forced a window to crack open. Once inside, she slowly walked down the long corridors, her strained eyes darting in all directions to avoid being detected by the security cameras. It was a lot more difficult to spot them thanks to the all of the lights being off inside of the building. It left her with an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach.

But she continued on, finding her way by placing her small hand on the walls and lead her through the maze.

Once she was finally at the end of the corridor, she saw a familiar plate drilled to a door:_ SF-A2 development code; miki_.

"And so, it ends here..."

* * *

A/N:

The worst chapter I've written so far, but I'm really really sorry for taking so long to update. OTL

I wanted to post up something for my absence and to make it up I made the chapter really long to compensate for it. This originally was suppose to be the very last chapter, but it'd be too long and I don't think you'd like to read like, maybe over 1,000,000 words or something! XD

I also just finished taking my AP exams and I feel pretty confident that I made a 4 on them! :D

I'll try to be quicker with the last one, so please bear with me until then!


	7. Saiai No Hito, Sayonara

A/N: Okay, I'm very sorry for taking so long to finish this FanFic. I really want to get back to doing JML real soon, I don't want to forget and have to wrack my brain to find out what the ideas where. =w="

I have a horrible habit of not writing down my ideas since I tend to just sit in my seat and then just go from there. ^^"

The other reason why this was so late is because I was grounded and the internet no longer worked, but in any case, I got this finished. ^^ I've also been feeling a bit sick lately and I know that there are grammar/puncutation mistakes, so please bear with me, I don't like how I did this chapter so it's definetly going to go under some serious changes when I'm better.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 7: Saiai No Hito, Sayonara

* * *

_"The girl who seemed unbreakable-broke._

_The girl who seemed so strong-crumbled._

_The girl who always laughed it off-cried._

_The girl who never stopped trying-Finally gave up."_

* * *

"LILY-CHAN! SLOW DOWN, PLEASE!" Len begged as he clutched to the armrests of his seat and tried to back up into his seat as far as possible.

Lily ignored him as her nostrils were flaring, screaming profanities at the paniked passerbyers through her opened window while narrowly missing a few cars. Len made several silent prayers for him and his friends, hoping that they could make it to the company in one piece.

Kaito was oblivious to what was happening around him as his eyes were focused on the letter he had in his trembling hand. His throat felt tight as he clutched the letter tighter, wondering what in the world was going through Miki's mind as she wrote to all of her friends.

"Len, I fuc*ing **swear** that I'll beat your face into the windshield if you don't stop that obnoxious screaming of yours! Grow some balls, you brat!" she screeched at him as he shut his eyes tightly and bit his lower lip.

After making a sharp turn, Lily finally got them there in front of the building and slammed her door shut. Her dark blue eyes were ablazed as she marched towards the door.

Len was shaking as he slipped out of his seat and timidly closed his door. As he moved towards Lily, he realized that Kaito was still inside and walked back towards the van and opened up the back door.

"Kaito? Are you okay?" he called out and took a step inside.

Kaito's head gave a small jerk as he turned to face Len. He gave him a weak smile and stiffly shoved Miki's letter in his right coat pocket.

"I-I'm fine, just a little distracted is all..." he mumbled as he made his way past Len and ruffled his head. With a small frown, Len pushed his loose hair out of his eyes and followed him out without another word.

Once he caught up to them, he saw that the two of them had stopped at the front and started to wonder what they could be waiting for. He side-stepped Kaito and to his surprise, saw a mop of messy white hair with a large cowlick sticking out. "Piko!"

The boy in white turned around with a fatigued expression but quickly changed to an agitated one as he rose up to his feet and crossed his arms. "What? Aren't you happy to see me?" he asked in a monotone voice and tucked a loose hair behind his ear.

Lily was the first to speak up. "Well, it's not like we _aren't_, but why are you here?"

He shrugged and turned his attention back to the door and snapped it open. Their eyes widen as Piko nonchanatly pushed the wires aside. "Don't worry, I turned off the silent alarm to let us all in." he said as he pulled them aside and walked in. "Oh, and you do know that the subway can be faster." he added with a small smirk.

Lily gave him a hard scowl but followed him inside, along with Kaito and Len. Len was grateful that Piko managed to open the door for them, but curiosity was eating away at him as he ran to catch up to Piko.

Once their footing was in synch, Len leaned over and whispered,"Okay, tell me why you're here. I thought you didn't care about Miki-chan the way you always fight with her." he asked curtly. Piko ignored him and kept a steady gaze in what was in front of him.

Len was beginning to feel very aggravated by him and forced him to stop by harshly grabbing onto his shoulder. "Look, I just want to know what you're doing here, then I'll leave you alone." he bluntly stated.

Piko raised an eyebrow. "Promise?" Len was taken aback by how coolly he sounded and nodded.

Piko shrugged him off and continued walking forward. "...It'd be no fun anymore if she wasn't here to talk to." he said quietly.

Len stopped at Piko's honesty and stayed rooted in place. He couldn't believe his ears as his fists clentched. He ignored the familiar emotion of jealously as he trudged onward.

None of this was left unnoticed by Kaito. Piko was here to help save Miki, there wasn't any other way of looking at it. He could see that even though Piko was too relunctant to admit it. A small smile creased his lips as he walked forward and lightly nudged Lily to catch up.

Lily felt a little out of it as she quickened her pace to catch up to the boys. "Piko!" she called out to him as he turned around on a heel.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you can, you know, hack your way through?"

She remembered the last time he was able to help everyone sneak out of the mansion by being able to hack into the Master's computer mainframe and was able to shut down the whole system in minutes.

She remembered how disappointed he looked when he came down from the Master's chamber. Everyone thought that he wasn't able to do it, but complained to them all saying that it was too easy and thus was no fun for him. Then he had the nerve to insult their intelligence as they all headed out but finally had his mouth shut, courtesy of Miki and Gumi.

...They all paid for it by a whole year's worth of no pay when He found out.

Piko's eyebrows shot up as he showed her his backpack. "As much as I do detest her presence, I came prepared in case it gets too heated up for me. Which, as you all know, will never happen." he said with a cocky smirk that she wished she could wipe off with a swift punch.

But she knew better than to hurt their one hope of getting to Miki in time and followed him wordlessly down the hall.

xXx

Miki's hands fumbled with the wires as she connected them to the pores of her body. She opened up the small casings on her shoulder blades and slid them down there until she heard a click before continuing on to the next one.

When she was finished, a good bit of her body was covered in them and went to the same monitor that had kept track of her vitals and turned it on. She winced at the strange sensation when she placed a large one enter her spine. A rush of electric signals flowed back and forth between her and her Master's computer as she skimmed through the documents even managed to hack into her files to find her information.

"Gotcha."

She double clicked the folder opened and revealed all of her information. She scrolled the mouse down to quickly find what she was looking for and skimmed through until she caught on what she needed.

**_Program Name:_** SF-A2 development code miki/Vocaloid

**_Release Date:_** 12.4.10

**_Update(s):_** N/A

_**Series:**_ Artists Vocals

_**Comments:**_ N/A

She stared at the comments, wondering what she could say that could allow her to disable herself. She furiously shook her head.

"I don't have time to waste...I think this could work..."

She quickly typed in 'Corrupted Data/Immediate Termination of Project'. While the information was being processed, she started thinking._ What would it feel like to not exist anymore? Would anybody miss me? Will this hurt?_

A robotized voice that sounded like a woman snapped her out of her thoughts and focused her attention at her declaration.

_"Requested Uninstallation of Project SF-A2 development code miki/Vocaloid has been recieved. Initiating immediate action of termination of files." _

Miki stood there with a content smile on her face until she felt a sharp pang in her spine that shot up to her brain. She gasped and dropped to the floor,clutching her head with her eyes tightly shut. Her body began to tremble as the woman spoke to her again.

_"Uninstallation in progress. Time remaining for complete Uninstallation: 9.59 minutes."_

Behind her closed lids, she could see her remaining time, steadily decreasing in a neon green text. She forced them open and tried to move her limbs, but they locked in place, ceasing any sort of movement.

_Time remaining: 9.23 minutes._

Her body gave a violent jerk as she felt her stomach knot up and groaned. She tried to stifle her screams by biting down on her hands, causing herself to bleed. Another pain ripped through her spine, but this time it was far more intense than before and permeated her down through her toes. Miki couldn't hold it in anymore and cried out in agony.

xXx

Len wordlessly followed Piko with the others trailling behind. He never knew his true extent of his skills and was amazed by how quickly and efficiently he got his work finished. Piko's nimble hands worked through it all while mumbling a few things under his breath. He increased his speed after he had gotten the hang of it. He looked at his wrist watch and noted that they had already spent twenty minutes looking for her.

He turned around to let them know that they needed to be quicker until he was face to face with Lily. She saw his watch and her eyes bulged. "Come on, pick up the pace everybody!" she yelled as she harshly tugged on his USB to make him go faster.

The Company was huge, Len was having trouble reading the map and Lily's horrible sense of direction kept getting them lost. Piko looked up to the man in blue and saw how pensive he looked. He opened his mouth to say something when they stopped in front of a pair of sliding doors until they heard a scream.

Lily's blood ran cold. "That was Miki!"she cried and ignored Piko's protests as she broke through the glass door and rushed out. Piko stared back at her dumbfounded. "Y-you idiot! We can't be reckless, you'll alert-"

"Miki could be uninstalling herself right now! I don't give a fu** if I have to be careful, she needs me!" she screamed over her shoulder and continued to run towards the source of the scream.

Her heart was painfully beating inside her ribcage, threatening to burst out from the amount of fear she felt. She has to hurry, she has to find her before it's too late. Miki isn't alone. She never was.

Lily harshly bit her lower lip to ignore the fear gnawing at her insides as she tasted a little bit of blood. It didn't matter, it couldn't be like anything Miki was going through. Tears pricked her cobalt eyes as she looked back at the others. She was thankful that they weren't that stupid.

Ignoring Piko's complaints, Kaito and Len followed her, trying to desperately catch up to her speed. Piko stopped what he was doing and ran after them not wanting to be left behind.

The screams grew in intensity, echoing through the corridors, a painful reminder that they needed to hurry. After getting lost for the third time, Kaito snatched the map from Len and decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Dammit! We're too far off! Come on, go this way!" he commanded while the other three obidiently complied.

Another bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air as Piko's heart almost stopped. With the amount of pain that her body was going through, would he be able to pull it off? Could he really save her? They continued running, all the while praying that they wouldn't be too late.

xXx

Miki's breathing was ragged and short as she struggled to force air into her lungs. Miki let out another bloodcurdling scream that echoed inside the room. Beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as she curled up into a tight ball. Bits and pieces of her memories were coming and going as she dug her nails into her scalp.

She saw a pair of kids, a boy with light green hair and a young girl who had long, coral pink hair tied up in low ponytail wearing some kind of red kitty helmet. Their innocent smiles looked back at her as she could almost feel their arms wrap around her jarring body. The moment the pair of small hands touched her skin, they vanished.

Her eyes widened in fear as she began to try and claw her way out of the dark void. "NO!" she screamed, her arms thrashing about. She tried to scan through her mind; just who were they?

Suddenly, a pair of beautiful aquamarine eyes looked back at her with mischievious grins. A girl with golden blonde hair laughed and reached for her hand, only to have it disappear before her very eyes. The other one, a boy, blushed when their eyes met and gave her a bashful smile.

Through all the pain, she found his presence comforting. She reached out to him, her hand wanting to clasp itself over his tie and to pull him closer to her. She didn't understand why. Didn't understand this feeling...the feeling of comfort, of solace. She felt like she knew him from somewhere and that alone was enough to momentarily forget her pain.

The moment her fingers lightly brushed against the fabric, the neon green numbers flashed from her eyes.

_Time remaining: 6.39 minutes_

The shock sent her reeling her hand back to her which in turn received a forlorn smile from the boy before he, too, disappeared in a flash of pixels. _Pixels?_

"Wait! Come back!" she called out, her arms started moving on their own and started violently flailing around, successfully knocking over several of the monitors. The sudden movements caused the wires to tug and tangle up with the other monitors that they too became ensnared with the legs of the bed. The bed flipped over and nearly fell on top of her were it not for the sudden spasm in her legs that kicked it away. Her vision turned black as the countdown reappeared again.

_Time remaining: 6.01 minutes_

"NO!" she started thrashing again until she saw two people. She saw a young man carrying a small girl in his arms. He had dark hair and wore wire-rimmed glasses while the girl had her hair tied up in pigtails wearing an elemntary school student's uniform.

They looked at her with sad eyes. The little girl jumped from his arms and ran towards her, her mouth forming words but no sound was coming out of them. Tears began to form from the corners of her eyes as she started running, her small cheeks were flushed as the tears began freely flow down her face in small rivulets.

Miki didn't know what to do. She only layed there, trying to take in all that was happening in front of her. _Who was she? Why is she crying? Is she crying...for me?_

Before the little girl could even reach her, she tripped over her own feet that sent her going forward. The second her forehead made contact to the ground, she bursted into a million pixels.

The moment she disappered her heart began to throb, either from the effects of the uninstallation working at shutting down her vitals or from the heartache she had just received from witnessing the young girl's display of emotion.

Right before she finally felt a little bit at ease from the sight of the people, a violent surge of pain shot up through her whole body that she let out another scream, this one exponentially more intense than the last. She wanted it all to stop. She didn't want to see anybody anymore. She didn't want to feel all this pain anymore. She just wanted everything to be gone.

Even if it meant that her heart had to stop.

No matter how badly she wished it, she could have sworn she saw the image of a young woman with a scowl on her face. Her long blonde tresses shadowed her face a bit until she tucked those loose hairs behind her ear. Once she did that, Miki noticed that she was breathtakenly beautiful.

Out of nowhere, a girl with kelly green hair who wore bright red goggles on her head bounced in with a boy in tow who had ivory colored hair. He didn't appear all too happy being brought in against his will but his gaze softened when he saw Miki in her pitiful position.

Miki tried to push her body upright so that she could get a better look at them. The moment she tried however, they started breaking apart and heard a sharp screeching sound that forced her to cover her ears and screamed again. Her scream must have intensified as it sounded as if though it began to echo through out the walls of the room.

Just as the horrid screeching disappeared, so did the trio. She screamed out of frustration. Just who the hell were those people and what did they mean to her? A few more of them appeared, but their silhouettes were hazy and left without a trace.

However, one pair stood out the most.

A young man with azure blue hair was with a young girl with long teal hair that was tied up in pigtails. Despite the morose expressions from the ones before, she saw that they were smiling at her. She couldn't help but believe that the pair looked...great together.

Happy, smiling faces that seemed to somehow taunt her. And yet, she felt something stirring in her heart. She actually felt happy seeing them together and couldn't help but smile at them.

They both looked surprised from her gesture but the man in blue smile grew wider while the girl's went down to form a small frown.

But as quick as it came, it went away as her shoulders started to shake to prove that she was laughing at her. She walked away from the young man and knealt down next to Miki.

To her surprise, the girl was actually able to touch her as she reached and twisted around Miki's cherry red hair around her delicate finger.

A sly grin replaced the cherubic one that she had earlier as her gaze darkened. Her lips curled up into a wicked smirk and started to lean in close to her ear and whispered, "Bye-bye, freak~"

And just like that, the tealette forcefully grabbed a hold of her hair and shoved her down into a dark abyss, her sickenly sweet laugh echoing throughout.

She screamed until she realized that it was all in her head. Her conscious began fading in and out as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Another surge of pain washed over her body as she twisted into an uncomfortable postion and screamed again. Her lungs kept forcing out the air until she felt something oily rise up in her throat and coughed up her own blood.

_Time remaining: 5.19 minutes_

xXx

Their footsteps echoed in the distance as her screams grew louder and more frequent. They quickened the pace after they heard another scream as Len pushed pass Piko to get ahead. Kaito was up front leading them and inched a bit closer to him. Kaito was muttering a few things under his breath and Len started to strain his ears to listen. When he still couldn't catch a single word he was saying, he gave up with an exhausperated sigh.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to notice that Kaito had stopped in his tracks and collided onto his back. The force of it knocked him unbalanced and landed onto the floor and looked up at the older man.

"Kaito! What the hell are you doing just standing there? Get a-"

"She's in there. She's behind that door." he deadpanned as he glanced over at Piko.

He didn't need to say another word to the younger male as he made his way over and undid the latch. Just as he was about to push the door aside, a screeching sound caused them all to jerk and scream in unison with the girl inside.

At the sound of her high-pitched scream, Lily forced her legs to move and shoved her way through inside. The second her eyes looked at the contorted mass on the floor, she nearly doubled over and emptied her stomach from the sight.

Piko's face turned ash-grey and bit his lower lip. He had to force himself to tear his eyes away from her form as he rushed over to the monitor and tried to reverse the effects.

His heart sunk at the numbers that was flashing on the screen.

_Time remaining: 2:23 minutes_

His hands shook as his fingers started rapidly gracing the keyboard. There were so many variables that he had to juggle, if he messed this up, a virus could be triggered by the security system and take Miki out right that second, regardless of how much time she had left.

Miki's contorted body was adorned with the myriad of wires as they saw her struggling to pull herself off the red-stained floor. Len focused his gaze at her until he realized just what that crimson fluid was.

Unlike Lily, he had to find the nearest garbage can to empty whatever he had managed to eat for breakfast. After he wiped his mouth, he couldn't bear to look at Miki anymore. He never knew it was going to be so...

"_**Miki**!_"

Lily and Kaito raced to her as Kaito kneeled down to gingerly pick her quivering body. He lightly tucked behind her loose hair behind her ear as she slowly opened her eyes.

She jolted but immediatley regretted doing so as she winced from the pain. _It's the man in blue!_

Kaito looked a bit surprised by her reaction as he lightly shook her body and gently stroked her cheek. "Miki! Don't worry, Piko's going stop all of this and then we'll take you back home." he tried to say in a reassuring tone, but his voice wavered a bit that proved that even he wasn't entirely sure.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, he's right Red. Just hold on tight so then that shota can help you pull through. We promise that everything will get better after this is over..." Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to stay optimistic, but it seemed impossible now.

Miki eyes fluttered and tried to focus on what they were saying but only caught a few bits of what they said. "Home? Where's...home?" she asked in a hoarse voice. All that screaming took a lot out of her as she struggled to make sense on what was happening. All these people looked exactly like the ones she encountered in her mind, was she going crazy?

Lily's eyes widen as she glared at Piko. "Dammit White! Hurry up already!"

"I'm trying! If you think I suck at my job, then why don't you get your fat ass over here and try to do this yourself!" he challenged.

Lily opened her mouth to retaliate until Kaito shut her up with a steely glare. She focused her attention back to Miki as she took one of her hands in hers. She lightly rubbed her cold limp hand in her warm ones.

"Miki, what happened? Don't you remember who we are anymore?"

Miki didn't respond as her dull eyes looked into Lily's usually bright ones. Kaito lightly squeezed her as he rested his chin on her forehead before pulling away. _Her forehead's burning up!_

"...away..."

Kaito and Lily were both surprised as they looked down at her. Lily gently nudged Miki's arm. "What was that? What do you want 'away'?"

Miki flinched at her touch. Before she could utter another word, her body felt another painful attack and screamed bloody murder.

That was all the prompting Lily needed as she got up from the floor and stormed off to Piko. "What's taking so long? Shouldn't this be-"

"If I fu** this up Miki won't come home to Yuki and Kiyo! What part of 'I'm trying' don't you understand?" he screamed, feeling the pressure increase as his eyes quickly glanced at the timer.

_Time remaining: 1:18 minutes._

"_**Sh*t!**_" he cried out as he slammed his fists onto the keyboard. He couldn't do this. He already tried to go around all the systems, force himself through the files, everything he could think of. His mind was all jumbled up as he felt the back of his neck heat up.

Lily looked at him falling apart as the stress was building up. She thought he could do wonders on these kinds of things, but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

He stopped and took a deep breath. "I-I need Gumi...Okay, I admit it, I need her help. But dammit! That bit*h isn't even in here and Miki's chances are dwindling!" he cried out in exasperation and started to bite his nails.

Kaito couldn't believe what he was hearing as he held her close to his chest and uttered, "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry..."

Miki looked up with him, her eyes were a mixture of pain and confusion. _What could he possibly be sorry about? And what the other three, why were they here? What am **I** doing in here..._

Lily left Piko's side and rushed back to Miki's as she looked up to see Len's defeated stare. She wiped away the blood from Miki's mouth with her sleeve and felt the tears slide down from her cheeks. Miki blinked as she felt one of them land in her eye and forced her neck joints to obey her to allow her so that she could look at the young woman.

Why did these people care so much? They all looked exactly like the ones she saw earlier, but how? What did they mean to her?

"Miki! Please, don't tell me you don't even recognize your best friend! It's me, Lily! You know, the girl you hang out with everyday and help me stay out of trouble? The girl you tried to teach how to cook but I ended up burning up half the kitchen at your place? The same place where I met your brother? Or how about the time I took you to the park for the very first time? Remember the ducks? You loved them so much. You even made Piko and me stay for the rest of the afternoon there just so you could feed them bread from that convenient store. Or maybe you remember that day you and I sang together for the first time? Remember _Chill Out_? Wasn't that also the first time you sang with Rin and Mizki? Don't you at least remember how great we sounded?" she begged, searching in her maroon eyes for a flicker of recognition, for anything at this point.

Kaito understood what Lily was trying to do. "Miki?" he gently propped her body on his lap as he tried to make her comfortable so that she could see the pair of worried blue eyes. "Do you know who I am? It's me, Kaito. I'm the one who taught you how to make cherry ice cream on the day we met. Cherries are your favorite food and that was the nickname I gave you for the first few weeks you were released. Do you at least remember the time when Gumi invited you, me, and Len for a spa day? Or maybe you remember the time I took you to the carnival? You took my hand wouldn't let go because you wanted to go on all the rides with me..." he blushed at the memory.

Lily looked up at him with her mouth slightly ajar. _Miki was bold enough to do that?_ she thought but noticed his sheepish grinned and realized that it must have been before Miki showed any signs of liking him. But then, maybe, by how red his cheeks are...

"You basta*d! You've liked her back this whole time, didn't you?"

He looked up at her in horror as Miki's thoughtful expression changed back to one that looked like confusion. "H-huh? What're you two talking about?" she asked, feeling even more and more lost by the second.

Before they could respond another jolt of pain assaulted her senses as she let out a painful scream. Everyone looked back at Piko as he tried to stop it, but it was all in vain. His two-toned eyes found themselves looking straight at the timer.

_Time remaining: O:15 minutes._

"FU** IT!" he screeched and knocked over several of the monitors as he made a dash at Miki and began to claw out the wires from her body. She cried out in pain as each individual wire was forcefully yanked out, their tips stained with her blood. Her body began to twitch violently as Lily and Kaito looked up at Piko in disbelief.

Piko stopped for a fraction of a second to shoot them an icy glare. "DON'T JUST SIT THERE, HELP ME GET THESE OUT OF HER, DAMMIT!" He turned to look at Len. "Get your head out of the trash can and pull out that cable! It's connected to that monitor, if we can shut that down, we might be able to save her by cutting off the uninstallation!"

Len wiped his mouth. "_Might_? Might doesn't cut it! Can't you be anymore-"

Lily jolted upright and ran towards the wall. With one hand, she gripped the cable and placed the other one on the wall for balance. Miki was panting heavily now, and her skin had paled to a sickly, ashy hue. Lily tugged at the cable, but for some reason it wouldn't budge. She started to panic and tried again, but it was only met with another strangled cry from the red headed Vocaloid.

_No! This can't be happening!_ Lily felt her hot tears prick at her eyes as she wrestled with the wire again. "Please, come out! Just come out already!"

_Time remaining: O:O3 minutes._

Kaito and Piko were nearly finished pulling out every last bit of wire on her until an idea struck the ivory-haired male. "The power chord! Lily, ignore that one and take out the power chord!" Shutting off the computer was a huge risk that he was willing to take, but hopefully that'll stop the download, right?

_Time remaining: O:O2 minutes._

Miki let out another scream and started thrashing against the floor while the other two were struggling to pull out the large chord that was embedded in her spine.

_Time remaining: O:O1 minutes._

Lily sprinted to the desktop and furiously yanked its power cord from the outlet. Instantly, the computer screen grew black. At the same time, Miki's eyes widened, and her brilliant ruby-red irises dulled to a dark, murky maroon color. Her body grew rigid on the floor and nearly stopped breathing.

She could hear the weak pulsations that her heart gave out in her ears in a feeble attempt to keep her body alive. But she knew it was too late. She had already lost so much blood, her body went under too much stress. However, the absence of all the pain she had endured began to slowly disappear as she felt her body beginning to become numb.

Her head began to clear up a bit as she heard frantic screams and saw that she was being lifted up from the ground. The man with the dark azure eyes were glossed over as he kept screaming at her something incoherent. That was when she realized she couldn't hear them anymore.

Her breathing became more labored and struggled to keep her head up, it was beginning to feel so heavy, it was bothersome to want to try and lift it up at all now...

She wanted to close her eyes. She didn't want to see them anymore...them? Them, them, them...

She tried to pull out those memories that they described but only pulled out blanks. The girl with blonde hair ran out, tears rolling off of her cheeks as she sent the younger males away, all the while screaming and pulling out her hair.

Then it hit her.

She _did_ know them. Fragments of her memories began to appear that was not deleted appeared and saw them all. The boy with the blonde hair that was tied up...he liked her, didn't he? The boy with ivory hair viewed her as a nuisance but secretly had a soft spot for her. The girl with the attitude and fierce personality really is her best friend. And the man in blue...

Her heart fluttered weakly in her ribcage as she forced a smile on her face. He looked down at her and was surprised to see her like that, smiling, despite everything she was put through.

She knew she wouldn't make it. Her body took in too much and it was far too late for help. Her eyelids started to feel heavier and heavier as she tried to focus her attention on him, just one last time.

He looked as if though he was screaming, shaking her body, desperately trying to get her to speak to him.

She was slipping in and out of conscienceness as she willed her lips to move, forming her last words before she fell deep into the darkness.

_"I love you."_

* * *

A/N:

This was suppose to be finished on July 4th, but a lot of things came up and I've been busy trying to submit everything in for college this fall that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, to be honest. ^^" If you're confused by the people that Miki saw, she was hallucinating about the people she used to know as her memories were being erased. Thank you very much for your patience and uh, I'm positive that the reviews won't be exactly happy about what I've done here. ^^" I was running out of ideas so I'm sorry for the horrible quality.

I'll be going, need some sleep...


	8. A Faint Wish

A/N:

Okay! I really was going to let Chapter 7 be the last, but my darn OCD to even numbers just would _not _settle and I felt like I just _had _to make another one. I'm pretty sure you don't mind, but you all probably hate me for what I did to Miki…Well, just continue reading this as you get a good look through the minds of the other Vocaloids thoughts about the events that had taken place in the last chapter. This last quote was something that makes me wish I knew earlier in life to say to a very good friend of mine recently… and for Miki was well, of course.

Chapter 8: A Faint Wish

* * *

_"In the night of death, hope sees a Star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing."_

* * *

Lily couldn't believe it.

She flat out _refused _to believe it.

Miki always seemed so…happy, carefree, confident in the way how she looked at things.

But she was wrong. She was _dead _wrong.

Lily placed her head between her legs and let out a choked sob. Her body began to shake as she dug her nails through her scalp and she felt the sharp pain sear through her body. She even bit her lower lip to draw out a little blood, anything to dull out the real pain she was feeling inside her thundering heart.

Quirky, sweet, innocent Miki…

_Why? Why her?_

She wedged her body in between the doors and slid down onto the cold tile floor. She let the angry tears roll off her face and saw them leave dark spots on her yellow sweater.

She was afraid to close her eyes. She was afraid of seeing her face again.

Not the one she loved seeing, the one where her smile reached the edges of her face, her cheeks lightly dusted pink, her eyes shining like the gems that they resembled and that would gaze at her endearingly...

She was exhausted, having to force herself to stay awake for more than a day now. Her eyelids began to droop and her head began to loll to the sides. For a fraction of a second, her eyes slipped shut and she almost screamed in terror.

She felt a pair of hands rest on her shoulders and jerked in surprise. She looked up to see a set of dark, sympathetic, hazel eyes look into her deeply troubled, cobalt ones.

"K-Kiyo," she managed to let out, "I-I'm sorry, I'm so, so s-sorry…"

Before he could say anything, she grabbed handfuls of his coat and buried her face in his chest so that he wouldn't have to see her cry.

She thinks back to the letter, how Miki told her that she wasn't the friend that she needed, that she deserved better.

_What a liar…_

Her mind goes back to the very first fight that they ever had.

All those things she said to her… Guilt began to eat at her again, slowly chewing out her insides. It just wouldn't settle.

She kept hearing her own words in her head, pounding around and around in a steady rhythm, like fists on a drum.

She felt his arms rubbing her back, whispering condolences in her ear.

"It isn't your fault, Lily. It'll be alright, she'd— "

"She'd what?" she demanded. "We took too long because of me. We took too long because I didn't know where she ran off to. We took too long because I was too busy beating up Miku for some answers!" she felt her anger rising, dangerously reaching it's boiling point. "We took too fuc*ing long because it was all on _me_!"

He looked back at her. Her voice was wavering the whole time. Her eyes were glistening and her lower lip was quivering. He gently tilted her chin upwards and lightly grazed his lips against hers.

"Please don't say that about yourself. You did the best you could have done." He buried his face in her hair and tried to stifle a sob.

He felt more responsible than she. After all, wasn't he supposedly her brother? He actually didn't know about the horrible things Miku did to her until it was far too late. He was always busy, either away working, or shut off from everybody from within his room. He realized just how little contact or affection he had ever given her. He always lavished it onto Yuki, believing that she needed it more because she was younger.

He stroked her hair as they both began to cry and cling onto one another for support.

Lily sat up and wiped her eyes. "I-I shouldn't be crying," she said with a shake of her head, "I sh-should be h-happy…"

_Shut up_, she thought, _just shut up for God's sake! You're worthless to her. Best friend? Ha! Has a hollow ring to it now, doesn't it? _

She forced a smile on her face but broke down at how fake she looked in the reflection from his glasses.

All he could do was hold and rock her, whispering kind words to help soothe her like one does for a frightened child.

That moment of peace caused her to relive that horrible memory as her body shook violently.

That image will haunt her forever. Miki on the floor, her face ghostly-white, body stilled, decorated by the many wires that hungrily devoured her life away…

"If we had taken any longer," she started, taking several deep breaths to prevent her voice from cracking too much, "If we h-had taken longer to get there, sh-she wouldn't have made it!"

It was too much for him as he broke down and cried along side her as well.

"But my God, I'm just so happy that she's still alive!"

xXx

Kaito sits in a chair right beside Miki, his large hand over her small, frail ones as he watches the small arches on the heart monitor go up and down. It alarmed him to see how slight the changes were.

Her body had shut down and placed her in a stress-induced coma to save itself after he and Piko clawed out the wires while Lily undid the power chord.

Kaito looks at Miki's face— peaceful, like an infant. Just the other day, she had that beautiful smile on her face that she usually wore until everything came crashing down on her delicate body.

He touches her face, his hand slowly tracing the line of her cheek, smooth and flawless.

With a heavy sigh, he takes his hand off her cheek and begins to look at her small face. The arched bow of her top lip, her thick, curled eye lashes, her wonderful, dark eye brows.

Her hair is spread across the pillow like a cascade of red silk. He repeats her habit that he had seen her do so often and wraps a lock of her hair around his finger, admiring it.

His chest ached. It felt tight, squeezing the breath out of him, making every attempt more painful than the last. He couldn't bear seeing her like this.

Lily's accusing, hateful words came back to him at full force. _If she never liked you, she would've never gone through hell because of Miku!_

He gives her hand a tight squeeze as he tried to push Lily's words away. But he couldn't deny the truth. If only he was more honest with himself, if only he could have admitted to Len the moment he came to his room, accusing him of not caring so much for her.

_I'm such a coward! _He thought as his shoulders slumped and as he rested his head beside her arm.

If only things went back to the way they used to be, the way he and Miki could go out on their own without anybody making a fuss about it, without having Miku breathing down on her neck, watching her every move like a hawk waiting patiently for the right moment to strike her prey.

He slowly picked his head up and looked up at her face. There were no signs of movement, her eyes weren't even twitching.

_Is she even dreaming? Or is she surrounded by darkness?_

She probably would prefer the latter, not wanting to think about anything.

None of this was fair. Especially for the way he treated her.

He saw the way she smiled when she was around him, the way she would look up at him with eyes filled with tenderness, her timid way of speaking to him as she would grow flustered in his presence.

And yet he acted as if though they never happened. He had to ignore them, he didn't want to give Miku any more reasons to use against her.

He thinks back to a few days ago when she found him in the kitchen and glomped him. It had been a month since she had spoken to him and he grew frantic every time she teleported away from him.

He remembered how annoyed he felt when she did, how his anger disappeared when he was finally able to pull her close to him for the first time.

It was also the first time he had gotten a good look at her. After that, everything made perfect sense to him and memories of those rare moments spent with her came back.

He longed to protect her but could only do it from afar. Those were also the moments when Miki looked away that he was able to return her feelings, out of Miku's knowing gaze.

He laughed bitterly to himself, believing everything that Lily and Len had told him.

Their words had a ring of truth to them. He _did _hurt her. Look at where she is now. With every breath she takes, it's a sign of her body struggling to sustain itself, to keep itself alive.

The Company had only given her two days. Two days to wake up. Two days to prove to them that she's still worth saving.

No Company in their right mind would want to keep a useless android. Too costly, a waste of money it'd be to try to prolong a worthless item.

He gritted his teeth in anger as his jaw clenched. He _hated _the way that they described her. Hated how they would just give up hope on her.

They even said if there wasn't anything that they could do, they'd finish uninstalling her and create a new one to replace her.

She'd never be the same Miki, the one he loves, the one everyone loves.

They couldn't do that.

He _won't _let them do that.

Because this time, he'll be by her side, protecting her.

No matter the cost.

xXx

Len has been sitting on a bench outside of Miki's room for what seemed like hours. He was twisting and untwisting his tie, impatiently waiting for Kaito to finally get out so that he could have a turn to be with her.

He shuddered, remembering what her Master had told them after they had came to collect her body. _"If she isn't awake within 48 hours, we _will _dispose of her."_

He was more than ever terrified of losing her. He pulled his knees to his chin and let it rest there for a while.

Out in the distance, he could hear the fast pitter-patter of the workers feet as they kept coming in and out, feeding those tubes connected to her.

Even though he said all those things, her Master didn't want to be unreasonable and was at least making an attempt at preserving her life.

For that much, he was grateful for.

He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, not having slept a wink as he counted the hours. She only has about less than nineteen hours left.

The idea of never seeing her again, no, the idea of having to _live _with a facsimile was intolerable.

Unacceptable.

Distasteful.

Unbearable.

So as he sat by himself, on a bench, beside her closed door as people occasionally fluttered in and out, he ran through his mind on what it is that makes him care so much about her.

Could it be the way she laughs, so light and cheerful? Could it be the way she looks at people, eyes filled with so much warmth and love? Could it be the way she acts, her curiosity adding more to her charm? Maybe it was her manner of speaking to others, her quirky personality sometimes getting her into more trouble than it's worth. Could it be just how frail she can be when she's been pushed around, praying for help? Or could it be that he's shallow and likes how beautiful she looks to him, her thin eyebrows, full, well-rounded face, cherry-red lips, her large red orbs that glimmered in the light?

He sighs and puts his knees down while he leaned his head back against the wall.

Like Lily, he's afraid to close his eyes and instead remembers just how useless he was.

Piko's brilliant, he was able to sneak them in and tried to stop the system from completely taking her life away.

Lily was the one who shouted encouragements to everyone while begging Miki to stay awake a bit longer, just enough for her to know that she'd pull through.

And Kaito.

He felt himself grow angry at the name as his hand tightened its hold on his tie.

The way he pushed through everybody just to hold onto her motionless body, the way he lightly patted her cheeks to make those marvelous eyes flutter open again, the way their faces were so close to each other, the way she clung onto his coat in desperation to make the pain stop.

But that wasn't what killed him on the inside, that wasn't the part that tore his heart out and left it to shreds. It was what she said to Kaito before she lost consciousness.

_"I love you."_

She said it to **him**.

She said it to the one who **watched** in the background.

She said it to the one who doesn't really **care** about her.

She said it to the one who only came for her because he felt **guilty**.

That is his resolve.

And he couldn't have hated himself anymore than what he already did for it.

He was too absorbed into his thoughts that he didn't hear a pair of footsteps coming his way.

"Len?"

He looked up to meet an identical set of aquamarine eyes stare into his own. He jerked back in surprise to see his older sister, Rin.

"A-are you doing okay, Len?" she asked, concern evident in her voice.

He forced a smile on his face, "I'm okay, Rin, honest. I'm just out here waiting for BaKaito to stop hogging all of the visiting hours, eh heh heh."

Rin's eyebrows furrowed together as she stared into his eyes even closer. "…Len, I _hate _it whenever you lie to me."

Len flinched at the sharpness in her voice as she leaned closer, their faces nearly touching each other. She had a pained expression in her eyes that reflected his own.

He felt his body loosen up as soon as he caught it. He looked away from her, ashamed that he was so preoccupied with his thoughts and feelings that he failed to have taken hers in consideration. His own sister…

"R-Rin, I'm sorry…I-I've just been, you know…I've just been so _worried _about her, she is a close f-f-friend of mine, so you have to understand why-"

She silenced him by placing a finger over his lips. "Stop talking. I already know why you're here. I know you were there and saw her— ," she glances at the door before looking back at him, "— and saw her like…that. I know everything. Don't keep it all bottled up in the inside. It hurts even more if you do. Come on Len, I'm your own twin sister for crying out loud, you can tell me!" she pleaded.

The pain he felt for Miki was nothing compared to seeing his own equal in so much anguish as he. He bit down on his lower lip to keep himself from crying. He promised himself he wouldn't do that.

"Rin…why?"

She looked back at him with a confused expression on her face. "Why? Why what?"

"Why are you helping me? I thought you…" he paused for a moment to think of a way to word it carefully. "…I thought you…had a very strong…_dislike_, to Miki…" he managed to say.

Now it was her turn to look ashamed as she turned her head to look away from him. "I…I-I only did because… b-because M-Miku-nee…didn't like her…" she said the last part under her breath.

Lucky for him that he was able to catch it as he took Rin's hands in his. "Rin, Miki never did anything to you or to anybody. We all know how Miku really is, why did you trust her?"

Because I couldn't stand seeing her take you away from me. I just wanted you to come back to me...

That was what she wanted to tell him. But she knew that if she posed that as her reason, he'd never believe her.

So she didn't.

"Because Miku-nee is my first friend." she told him. Which, of course, was a blatant lie.

Len is her first, most precious friend that she was afraid to lose. The fear was so powerful that she'd stooped so low to Miku's level.

Of course she only participated whenever he wasn't around and she knew that Miki was too meek and kind to say anything horrible about his own twin to his face.

Now, in what could be her remaining moments, she could see just how much Miki truly meant to Len.

Rin Kagamine is no fool, because she knew his feelings can't be reciprocated. It pained her to see Len keep on with his fervent attempts to have Miki look at him.

She knows who has Miki's heart in the palm of his hand.

Those two made a slip, a slip that only she noticed, one that she was absolutely sure Len was being too stubborn to admit.

xXx

"Ouch! Fu**!"

The boy with short, ivory hair jerked upright as he cupped his bleeding hand.

He looked around for something to patch it up but when he could find none, he grudgingly used his white sweater to stop the flow.

Piko's ahoge drooped a little as he finished cleaning up the mess he had made in his frenzied state about a day ago.

It was the first time he had ever felt so…defeated. Useless. He was always confident in his abilities, believing that nothing was too difficult for him if he gave it some thought.

That was just one of the few things that he shared with another fellow Vocaloid, Gumi. But she was too upset and blamed herself as being the last piece of Miki's sanity, after hearing that she had disappeared and the lethal intent that she carried.

Maybe if she was had come with him, Miki would've had a better chance.

Maybe she wouldn't be confined into that cubicle that they had set aside to work on the repairs.

Maybe her body wouldn't have suffered so much because of his incompetence…

He sighed as he pulled out the shattered glass from his palm and let them fall into the trash bin. Now he could hear the faint sounds that they released as they made contact with the plastic.

Earlier, the whole company was in a frenzy after Piko reconnected the silent alarm. After they had collected her body, they took her away and praised him for his quick thinking.

_Quick thinking my ass_, he bitterly thought, _it was the only other option. If I didn't… _

He groaned as he let his tired body fall to the floor. When that realization struck that he couldn't do it alone, he went mad with fury and did the most stupidest thing he could have ever done. Who knew that it'd actually work?

He looked down at his shirt, which was a crisp white when he first put it on, and saw blotches of his blood mixed with hers after he harshly tore the chords out of her.

He winced as her face flashed in front of his eyes. The violent contortions, blood spewing out of those cherry-red lips, eyes that no longer shown the great spirit that she once possessed.

A shudder ran through his small body. As much as he had initially despised her, she ended up crawling under his skin and began to see her more as that annoying older sister figure that he's seen so often from reading Lily's and Rin's silly shojo mangas.

With a heavy sigh, he pulled his knees up to his chin and allowed himself to let his eyes rest for a moment.

It was already a long day, he just wished she could wake up before tomorrow rolls by. He was so _close _to strangling her Master when he declared her limited time.

_But then again, who ever said that life was fair?_ Was the last thought that slipped his mind before he drifted off to sleep.

xXx

Lily walked in on a sleeping Kaito, his hand tightly wrapped in Miki's.

She narrowed her eyes as she picked up a thick book from the desk on her right. Her tennis shoes squeaked on the highly polished floor and smacked Kaito awake.

"Your time's up, BaKaito! You're lucky Len left with Rin a while back, but for all you know they probably went to collect that damn road roller to flatten you later." she spat as he jolted up from the floor, the force of the hit had knocked him out of his chair.

The hit to the head snapped him out of it as he sat up and placed a hand over his, now throbbing, head.

He cringed at the contact as he saw Lily make herself comfortable on his chair and crossed her legs. She shot him a steely glare and her eyes quickly shifted to the door, a subtle sign telling him his presence wasn't wanted.

But he didn't budge.

Lily's thin eyebrows knitted together as her eyes shrunk into slender slits. She wasn't so sure if she was going to be able to control herself from having to hurt him, for Miki's sake.

"You've got five seconds to get outta here before I unleash hell on your sorry ass." she bluntly stated as she waited for him to pick himself up from the ground.

She was taken aback when he shot back his answer in the same tone she sent hers.

"I'm staying."

She uncrossed her legs and set them firmly apart, bending down just slightly as she kept seated in the chair to make themselves look at each other at eye-level.

"I don't know where the hell you come off, but you shouldn't even be here. If I was a bit more myself earlier, I would have _never _said yes to letting you come here. She's here not for some check-up, she's here because she's _dying_. Dying because, apparently, her life isn't good enough. She's dying because you went with that fu**ing pig, Miku!" she spat out the tealette's name.

She smirked as she saw him stand up, it must have been enough to throw him off and have him slink out of the room in shame. To her astonishment, he didn't head for the door.

Instead, he made himself comfortable on the edge of Miki's bed and stared directly into her cobalt eyes with his own azure ones.

With his signature smile, he said, "What's the matter Lily? You, know, I think you and I need to talk— "

"Fu** talking! I want you out, NOW!" she screeched.

In her anger, she knocked the chair back and had her hand firmly clamped down on his throat. She began to gradually squeeze it tighter, her temper getting the best of her as she noticed that he still didn't stir.

"You've got two options," she hissed under her breath. "You either forget her and get out, or have me snap that neck of yours right here, right now, and have me bend it back so that you can see me kick your ass."

With a hint of satisfaction, she smirked when she saw his face change color but it disappeared when she heard him manage to gasp, "Option two."

She didn't understand why, but her grip loosened as her hands fell limp to her sides. Kaito was taking several deep breaths to regulate his breathing again until he heard her mumble something.

"Why?"

He looked up to her and saw a genuine look of curiosity etched onto her features.

"Why are doing this? Do you think that this is some kind of… repentance or something for you? For everything wrong that you've done to her? Is that it? Come on, out with it!"

"…I thought you didn't want to talk about it. I was just getting to that part before you tried to hurt me." he replied calmly.

A look of wonder crossed her expression. He was the goofball of the lot, the straight-up nice guy of the gang. He used to be so carefree, but…it was almost as if though he became a bit like Miki. He calmed down, he was a lot quieter and he rarely spoke until he needed to. And it also happened around the time Miki ceased speaking…

She picked the chair from up the ground and turned around so that she could stretch her arms on the back rest.

"Okay, I came out a good while after Miki did, eight months to be exact, so I don't know what kind of history you two had before then. Fill me in on all the details. And before you give me any crap, you owe me. Why?" she didn't need to actually say it as her head gave a small nod in Miki's direction.

He was going to ask why until he noticed that gesture and bit his lower lip. She had a valid point…

Lily bit her lower lip and ran her fingers through her hair. Her eyes were getting heavier by the second but she _needed _to know something before she blacked out on him.

"Tell me, do you or do you not return her feelings? I mean, you looked kinda scared when I said that you did, or was it because you thought that it was stupid of me to ask?Or are you one of those sick Casanova guys that loves to know that almost all the girls want him?" she glowered at him when she added the last part, she wanted to get her point across on just how much she despised him right now.

He felt incredibly tempted on returning the same look, wondering how a person like Miki could stand someone like her and yet still be able to consider her as a close friend.

"I do, actually. Know why?"

He had enough of it.

He wasn't going to keep it bottled up any longer.

It was now or never, with her best friend to listen to it all.

Lily was a little surprised by how much stronger, more assertive his voice sounded at the moment. She went ahead and asked, "Why? All I've ever seen you do is ignore her."

"So you think that if I made it obvious, Miku wasn't going to use me to get Miki out of the way? You don't think that by doing that, I could've been feeding the flame?"

Lily slowly nodded in understanding. "Okay, point taken. But that doesn't prove anything— "

"Miki and I weren't that close before Miku grew bored with her. Don't look at me like that, she does that to everybody. It was pretty gradual, though. Even though she's from AH Software, Miku had invited her over a lot for sleepovers and all sorts of other things." He breathed a heavy sigh. "But I guess it all started when we went to the carnival."

Lily cocked an eyebrow. "At the carnival? Well, it isn't really one of the most romantic places and all, but-"

"You should talk. Dragging Kiyoteru to a night club qualifies as 'romantic'?"

"...touché."

He gave her a light-hearted laugh. "Well, maybe even before then, but I guess it was from that event that made me realize that maybe I was falling for her. Miku was suppose to come with us but ended up getting a virus at the last minute." he smirked that caused Lily to stare at him suspiciously. He cracked a smile at her and tried to keep his laughter in, "Gumi sent her one when she was asleep so that we could enjoy a day without her."

Lily laughed out loud and laughed so hard that she started crying. _Oh Gumi! I take back all that sh*t that I've ever said and called you!_

Kaito began laughing with her, not feeling the least bit guilty about it. Gumi was considerate of Miki's feelings and decided to do it as an early birthday gift for herself, so even if it was a bit selfish, nobody blamed her for it.

After they were both finished, Lily gave him a small wave of her hand, urging him to continue. He knowingly smiled and started back from the last point.

"I'll skip the argument Miku had with our Master and get on to the point where we invited the others to join. You do know that at this time, Miki and her siblings were still relatively new, so they did make a bit of a fuss when we got there but, being part of a new company and all, it died out pretty quickly. We all decided to go out in pairs of two: Rin and Len, Luka and Gakupo, Gumi and Meiko, Kiyoteru and Yuki-"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on there. I thought for sure that you'd be paired up with Meiko. You know, the whole being 'Seniors' deal. How'd you get to stay with Miki?"

He had a feeling she'd ask that and gave her a wry smile. "Let's just say that when Meiko's somber and has the genius Gumi along with her, they make quite a pair." _Especially when they both gang up on you while the other one is choking you to death trying to get you to admit who your crush is..._ he bitterly thought but replaced his grim thoughts with a sweet smile.

"So, we ended up being together, but Miki didn't mind. But she did make a fuss about it in the beginning, complaining that she wanted to be with Gumi," he said and he remembered that her comment _did_ hurt. But, he did know that he was the one at the time that had a secret crush on her and she rarely spoke to him, so it was understandable that she really didn't want to spend the day with someone she knew little to nothing about.

Lily giggled. "Ha! So even Miki could be a little mean when she wants to. I guess Miku rubbed off of her then..." she said with a playful smirk. Kaito pouted but decided to ignore that comment and continued.

"Well, she warmed up to the idea for a while. And trust me, once she did, she didn't want me out of her sight." Lily looked up at him and she saw a small smile on his face. "Did you know she loves to ride rollercoasters?"

Lily was a bit taken aback from the randomness of his question. But she ignored it and allowed him to go on. After he spoke for almost forty minutes straight, Lily held up her hand. "As much as your history about one event at a carnival is interesting and all that, can you wrap it up now?" she asked, now feeling a little bored with Kaito's nostalgia.

He frowned slightly but realized that she was right. "Fine, as the Great Lily wishes," he said sarcastically that ended earning him a smirk from said blonde. "Once we finished riding that rollercoaster for the eleventh time," _and after I could get the feeling back in my spine_, "we decided to take the ferris wheel to calm down a bit since it was almost time for us to go back home. And uh, it was-"

"Hold on there! I thought Miki was terrified of heights?" Ironic since she loves rollercoasters and rides up in a space ship almost all the time...

He nervously laughed. "Uh, yeah, I was getting to that part..." he blushed a little and tried to discreetly hide it by lightly tugging on his scarf, but of course, fate would bless Lily with keen eyesight.

"D'awww~! You're blushing! Whatcha two do in there? Did ya two cuddle? Did ya hold hands? No wait!" she gasped, "You two _kissed_, right? Come on! Tell me already, don't leave me in suspense here!" she was practically in his face with that last statement and he almost fell out of the bed.

His blush was more prominent at that point that Lily couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, so you did do that, didn't you~?"

He frantically shook his head. "N-no! Nothing like that! We never did that! I swear!" he was becoming increasing more flustered that she couldn't help but almost believe him.

"Feh, fine. Then what exactly happened between you two then?" she asked, still a bit skeptical.

He started fumbling with the loose strands of his scarf before he could bring himself to look at her. "...she was terrified of it...she said that it moved too slow and that it went too high for it to be any fun and exhilarating," his blush began to darken,"that she kept a steady hold on my waist the whole ride through...s-so I guess we sort of cuddled, if that's what you think..."

The corners of Lily's mouth kept stretching farther and farther up until he finally admitted that they "sort of cuddled". She squealed like a school girl. "Okay, I take it all back, carnivals are so _romantic_~!"

Kaito felt his eye twitch. Was this the real Lily? A tough girl on the outside that hides a soft, love-sick interior for all things fluffy and sweet.

"But then...why in the world didn't you let her know? If she didn't like you then, you should've been more obvious. I mean, she was interested you, why didn't you really take the chance before she did this to herself and after you split with Miku? How did her 'friendship' with Miku turn...sour?"

"If you were there, back then, you'd never think that it'd lead…to all this…Those two were surprisingly close…But…"

Lily's eyebrows furrowed. _But what…?_

He went on. "But then she heard _our _Master congratulate her on one of her songs when she had came over for another visit, I think it was then Miku actually considered her a threat. She kept overhearing the employees mentioning how nice Miki is compared to Miku. How much calmer she was, even with her eccentric personality. I honestly think Miku tried to make things work out between them, but— "

"Old habits die hard." Lily finished for him. He sighed in agreement.

"It was starting to get towards the time when Miku was about to drop Miki, but back then their friendship was just a little strained. Miku had an idea to host some kind of pool party with everyone coming over. Well, everyone but three that she had in mind… It didn't settle well with Len because he asked her why she was being so rude but she shut him up by slapping him across the face." his eyebrows knit together in silent fury.

"I wished Rin was out there at the time instead of inside helping Meiko so then she could've done some damage to Mi— Sorry, that slipped out!" he quickly apologized, to which garnered an amused smile on Lily's part.

"No need, made me think the same thing."

"Well, after that…I grew angry with her and decided to give them a call anyway. She was livid when she saw Miki walk in with Kiyoteru and Yuki behind her. Of course, she faked a smile after she hugged them and asked Kiyo and Yuki to bring her something, I can't really remember what…Anyway, after she got her alone, she kept glaring at her, trying to make her feel uncomfortable. When she asked what was wrong, Miku faked that smile of hers again and ignored her question by saying that it was getting to be pretty hot."

Lily looked at him carefully, still not understanding just how this related to her question. _Is he just stalling? _She wondered.

"So she grabbed Miki by the wrist and threw her into the pool."

That snapped Lily out of her thoughts and jolted up from her chair again. "THAT BI**H! THAT'S IT! LET ME AT HER, I'LL KNOCK HER LIGHTS O— "

He patted her head and gently pushed down to make her sit down again. "Calm down Lily, it's almost pointless now since it happened about a year ago." he said, trying to keep her temper at bay.

She scowled and crossed her arms and legs. "…then I'll do it when you're finished." she declared.

He rolled his eyes and continued. "You know how self conscious Miku is of her body, right?"

Lily scoffed. "No sh*t Sherlock, I think it's pretty obvious because of how she keeps bashing Luka, Meiko, and me for it."

He faintly smiled. "Well, um, not long after Miki managed to get out, Miku started pointing out her flaws…about her body…"

Lily's back and shoulders tensed up. Now she was pissed off that she wasn't released sooner. If she had only been out just a few months earlier…

He opened his mouth to continue but stopped when they heard a mumble come out of Miki and they both scrambled to her side. Her eyelids and foot began to twitch but then stopped. A look of glee ran across Lily's face as she started to dance a little, unable to contain her happiness.

"Hold that thought, I'll be right back, I've got to tell that jackass of a Master of hers that she's gonna make it! WHOOP!" with that, she ran out at full speed, leaving him behind with Miki again.

Like Lily, he couldn't contain his excitement as he looked at her face, hoping to see a trace of life in her again. It wasn't going to be a faint wish after all…

Lily came back seconds later, the Master in tow with a few other employees at his side to inspect her.

They quickly surrounded her as they checked her vitals with her Master looking quite pleased. He turned his attention to face the two Vocaloids.

"Her conscious is beginning to alleviate, that means she's coming out of her coma. It won't be long now until she wakes up. However," Lily and Kaito stopped smiling at one another when his voice turned grave, "she only has about ten hours left. I will not tolerate such looks, Miss Lily."

Kaito had to hold her back as she looked ready to assault Miki's Master. "No worries Lily," Kaito said, in an attempt to calm her down, "I'm sure Miki will be awake by then. How long do you estimate that she'll come out of it?" he asked him.

He looked a bit pensive for a moment. "It varies, could be a few hours, or…a few days later."

Kaito's heart sank. That wasn't good. Not good at all. And it certainly didn't help that her Master didn't appear in the least remorseful at the news.

Lily had the same expression on her face as her legs buckled under her weight. Her body finally couldn't take it anymore. It was all too much.

She passed out at his feet.


End file.
